NPA troubled by forged email in Matshela Koko's Eskom case

Evidence tampering claims given credence

- By Mawande AmaShabalala

The authenticity of the email that the state used as a smoking gun to charge former Eskom executive Matshela Koko in a corrupt multibillion-rand deal is being brought into question after it emerged that two conflicting versions exist.

The NPA is now running around like a headless chicken trying to verify the email's authenticity, something that it should have done before inculpating Koko.

At the centre of the email's questionable credibility is the presence of the word “yesterday”, which appears in the first version of emails exchanges on April 7, 2014 between ABB executive Markus Bruegmann and Thabo Mokwena, a businessman linked to Koko.

However in the other version, the word “yesterday” is missing, suggesting that the original email was doctored or that the other one is fake.

The NPA relied on this communication to allege that Koko orchestrated a 2014 meeting at Montecasino to pressure ABB into awarding a subcontract for Eskom’s Kusile project to Mokwena's company, Leago.

However, Koko’s legal team exposed critical discrepancies: one email version includes the phrase “the opportunity to meet yesterday”, while the other omits “yesterday”, radically altering its meaning.

The inclusion of “yesterday” implies the meeting occurred on April 6, 2014 - a timeline pivotal to the NPA’s claim that Koko leaked Eskom’s R2.2-billion budget for Kusile to ABB during that encounter.

The version without the word suggests the meeting had not yet happened or occurred on a different date, undermining the prosecution’s narrative.