Johannesburg - Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown has extended the deadline given to Eskom to to clarify its relationship with an advisory firm linked to the Gupta family, her office announced on Thursday.
Brown had initially given the Eskom board 48 hours on Tuesday to clarify its relationship with Trillian in light of recent revelations.
Eskom on Monday, admitted that it had lied about payments of more than R1.5 billion to Trillian Capital Holdings, a firm linked to the controversial Gupta family, and consultancy firm McKinsey.
The power utility claimed the payments were above board following the release of a damning report into Trillian by advocate Geoff Budlender.
It said fellow global management consultancy, Oliver Wyman, had concluded that the payments were "based on prudent costs incurred and value created".
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But earlier this week, Eskom was forced to concede that in fact Wyman had red-flagged the payments and recommended a legal review of the transactions.
Brown's spokesperson Colin Cruywagen in a statement confirmed that the deadline had been extended to Friday.
"The minister asked Eskom's board to provide her with particular documents relating to its business association with Trillian, and extended the deadline for the tabling of its report on the matter until end of business tomorrow [Friday]," her office said.
"The Minister will seek an urgent opinion on the report from a senior counsel advocate on the contents of the report and advise on particular actions in relation to the report."
Cruywagen added that Brown would then "communicate these developments to South Africans" in due course.