THE ESKOM FILES | How the ANC helped land Medupi, Kusile contracts for Hitachi

During a mysterious meeting at OR Tambo Airport in September 2007 an executive of global engineering firm Hitachi urged the chairperson of the ANC’s investment firm Chancellor House to help sway Eskom away from its plans to award two major contracts to its rival bidder, French company Alstom.

The discussion between Chancellor House chairman Professor Taole Mokoena and Klaus-Dieter Rennert, then a senior executive at Hitachi Power Europe, was brief, according to internal Hitachi emails obtained by News24. Rennert made it clear that Hitachi wanted the contract. 

Rennert asked Mokoena to speak with his "connections" at Eskom and in politics to warn them of the risk of appointing a single supplier to construct both the boilers and turbines at Medupi Power Station.