This allegation is reportedly contained in a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report, which found Eskom’s “self-created emergency” cost the country in emergency coal contracts during the first round of load shedding in 2008. 

The report containing this staggering figure also found that the country’s first load shedding experience may have been partly engineered by Eskom employees in order to sign emergency contracts to benefit coal suppliers. 

Some of these were 10-year contracts, entered into without proper tender processes, and which only expired in December last year. 

The report, which City Press obtained, was handed to former president Jacob Zuma in July 2017 after a four-year investigation and was never released by the presidency. 

Eskom said it would only be able to respond to questions next week.

-News24.com