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Gordhan to shed light on Gupta coal deals

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is expected to shed more light on the coal contracts between Eskom and a Gupta-owned company and his battles with state-owned entities. Gordhan will appear in the National Assembly on Wednesday, where ministers in the economics cluster will answer questions on the state of the economy. The finance minister has been under extreme pressure in recent weeks battling several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the Hawks. MPs have set out a series of questions for him and other ministers in the economics cluster. Eskom was in Parliament last week, where it told the portfolio committee on public enterprises that its coal contracts with the Gupta-owned Tegeta was above board. The Eskom board and its executives denied any corruption in the deal with the Guptas.

Eskom sent a 127-page document to the National Treasury on the coal contracts after Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown asked Eskom to do so. This followed a stand-off between Eskom and the Treasury for several months. The Treasury said Eskom has been refusing to hand over the information it was seeking in its investigation of the coal contracts with the Guptas. Gordhan is expected to shed more light on the matter in the National Assembly. The finance minister is also expected to answer questions on his fights with the SOEs. Other than Eskom, Gordhan has been battling arms maker Denel. Last week, Denel said the minister must come clean on his threats for legal action against the joint venture with another Gupta-linked firm. Denel said it had been waiting on the Treasury for approval of the joint venture, but the finance minister has been sitting on this matter since last year. He has not endorsed the deal despite repeated attempts by Denel to get him to do so.

Gordhan has been calling on SOEs to trim their spending and said in his Budget in February he would not be easily granting bailouts to SOEs. Gordhan said that for the past 15 years, the government had approved loan guarantees of R457 billion and warned that this was not sustainable. He called on SOEs to improve their financial performance and maintain strong balance sheets.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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Gordhan to shed light on Gupta coal deals

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