Durban - PUBLIC Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is investigating the awarding of multibillion rand contracts to renewable energy Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs).
The Anti-Poverty Forum, a lobby group representing poor people, lodged a complaint with Mkhwebane’s office last week, alleging that the Departments of Energy and Public Enterprise had forced Eskom to sign contracts with IPPs yet to be disclosed.
The forum alleged that Eskom paid R93million a day to the IPPs.
Treasury this week said the value of the signed IPP contracts would amount to R146.9billion by next month.
The acting spokesperson at the Office of the Public Protector, Oupa Segalwe, said “the case file has already been allocated to one of our investigation branches”.
Earlier this week, businessman Patrice Motsepe responded to the claims that he unduly benefited from the recently signed IPP agreements.
He said none of the renewable energy projects linked to his company African Rainbow Energy & Power (AREP) were received directly from government. Motsepe, who is also the owner of PSL club Mamelodi Sundowns, said they had a minority stake through private companies.
The chairperson of the forum, Phapano Phasha, said they represented South Africans who lived below the poverty line. He said they welcomed the public protector’s swift response to their complaint.
“We hope this will be a victory for the poor people,” said Phasha.