According to legal firm Bowmans, Econ Oil & Energy allegedly won the contracts with the help of Eskom's former senior manager of business enablement Thandi Marah, who interfered in the tender processes, said. Eskom commissioned the legal firm to conduct the probe and confirmed the final report to Bloomberg.

In return Econ Oil’s sole director Nothemba Mlonzi, allegedly made payments requested by Marah, including a R100 000 contribution to the ANC’s 2014 election campaign. A separate presentation made in February by Eskom’s Acting Group Executive for Legal and Compliance Nerina Otto, made the same finding and alleges that Econ Oil overcharged the utility by R1.2 billion between 2012 and 2016.

Bowmans probe followed Eskom’s decision in July last year to cancel a contract that would have seen it continue to buy fuel from Econ Oil. Marah was suspended in December 2018 and took early retirement at the end of January 2019.

Marah said she wasn’t aware of the Bowmans report and declined to comment further.

In her presentation, Otto said Mlonzi denied the allegations and undertook to give her side of the story in a sworn affidavit, which is yet to be submitted.

Moneyweb