Thread by @CyrilRamaphosa

Chairperson,
 
The Commission has asked me to address several other matters, including allegations made by witnesses before the Commission. These are addressed in detail in the statement that I have submitted to the Commission.

There is one particular issue on which I wish to comment now since it has received widespread attention and is easily disposed of.

This relates to allegations made by Mr Brian Molefe and Mr Matshela Koko in relation to the stake that I held in the Optimum Mine prior to my entry into government and my later responsibilities with respect to the Eskom war room.

While I was in business, I participated in a consortium with Glencore in the acquisition of Optimum Holding, which acquisition was concluded in June 2012.
 
I acquired an effective 9.64% shareholding in Optimum Holdings and became non-executive chairperson of Optimum Holdings.

I had no operational involvement in Optimum Holdings or Optimum Mine.
 
Following my election as ANC Deputy President in December 2012, I initiated a review of my business interests to avoid potential conflicts.

As part of this process, on 6 June 2013, I resigned as a director of Optimum Holdings, and on 22 May 2014, I disposed of my shareholding Optimum Holdings ahead of my appointment as Deputy President of the Republic.

I had no further involvement or interest in Optimum after that point.
 
In December 2014, President Zuma assigned me responsibility to oversee efforts to turnaround several SOEs that were in dire straits.

I was asked to give,guidance and direction to existing governance structures,  focusing on the unique challenges of each structure.
 
As is apparent now, this work required collective commitment by all governance structures, and was a long term endeavour.

Only recently have we started to truly make progress on the challenges that SAA, Eskom and other SOEs face.
 
As part of this responsibility, I chaired an Inter-Ministerial Committee on resolving the country’s severe energy constraints.

This IMC exercised political responsibility for the Eskom technical war room, which was set up to support the implementation of the Five-Point Action Plan adopted by Cabinet to address the electricity constraints.

The Technical War Room was under the day-to-day direction of Deputy Ministers of relevant departments and comprised representatives of Eskom and relevant departments.
 
I was not a member of the Technical War Room.

In response to the allegations made on this matter, it is necessary to make the following points:
 
First, my acquisition of shares in Optimum Holdings was a straightforward commercial transaction, done in accordance with regulations of the JSE.

Second, as non-executive chairperson of Optimum Holdings, I was not involved in operational matters of subsidiary companies, including contractual matters between Eskom and Optimum Mine.

Third, by the time President Zuma assigned certain Eskom-related matters to me in December 2014, I had disposed of my shareholding in Optimum Holdings and had no other business interests in mining or energy.

Fourth, as is evident from the documents provided to the Commission with my statement, the Eskom technical war room was not involved in Eskom management or operational issues.

I had no interest in, nor any opportunity to, influence Eskom’s decision-making process in matters pertaining to Optimum.