Eskom's interim CEO, Matshela Koko is accused of awarding contracts worth about R1-billion to his stepdaughter's company.
The Sunday Times reported that Koko's stepdaughter, Koketso Choma, 26, was a director of Impulse International from April to November last year. During that time, reported the newspaper, the engineering company won contracts worth R1-billion from Eskom, part of a total of R1.8-billion in contracts which the company has had from Eskom since 2014.
Koko has been acting CEO of Eskom since November; before that he was the executive responsible for generation.
Koko told the Sunday Times that he had discovered only last month that Choma was connected to Impulse International, and denied any involvement in the deals between Eskom and Impulse. Choma told the Sunday Times that she was a non-executive director of Impulse from April to October last year. "I decided to resign when my stepdad became aware of my relationship with Impulse and advised me to resign as a director as it might be perceived as a conflict of interest despite all the safeguards that have been put in place," Choma told the newspaper.
Impulse International CEO Pragasen Pather told the Sunday Times: "We did identify that there was a conflict of interest as we were getting contracts from Eskom where Koketso's stepfather is a boss and we had to let her go."