Tag: Gupta

Eskom and Gupta’s big breakfast contract

Eskom interim CEO Collin Matjila is on the spot over a R43-million contract to sponsor The New Age’s (TNA) breakfast briefings, the Mail and Guardian reported on Friday.

The new contract commits the cash-strapped power utility to sponsor around one TNA breakfast briefing per month for three years, the newspaper’s AmaBhungane investigative unit reported.

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown reportedly confirmed that she had been approached with concerns about Matjila’s approval of the contract.

Eskom board chairman Zola Tsotsi said the situation should not be “prejudged”.

“It’s a little premature to comment until I get feedback… to tell me what they [the subcommittee] uncovered.”

The contract apparently overshot Eskom’s sponsorship budget and allegedly did not contain an exit clause, which the parastatal’s lawyers allegedly raised concerns about prior to Matjila’s approval of the contract.

Acting group commercial executive Matshela Koko said the TNA contract was part of Eskom’s “continuing relationship” with the company, which predated Matjila’s tenure as interim CEO.

Spokesman for the Gupta family – the owners of TNA – Gary Naidoo said: “This contract was negotiated not with the then acting chief executive, but with the functional executives at Eskom and Nazeem Howa, TNA chief executive”.

He declined to comment on the Gupta’s relationship with Matjila.

Matjila could not be reached for comment, Sapa said.

India tests nuclear missile

agniIndia successfully test-fired for a second time a nuclear-capable missile yesterday that can reach Beijing and much of Europe, bringing a step closer production of a weapon designed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.

“The test was successful,” said Ravi Kumar Gupta, spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). “It hit the target in a predefined trajectory. It met all the mission objectives”

A video distributed by the DRDO showed the Agni-V rocket blasting off from a forest clearing on an island off India’s east coast state of Odisha.

India is trying to keep up with China’s growing military strength and wants to have a viable deterrent against its larger nuclear-armed neighbour.

The country is trying to keep up with China’s growing military strength

The two countries have generally warm relations, but they fought a brief Himalayan war in 1962 and a build up of conventional defences along their disputed border is a source of tension.

The Agni-V is the most advanced version of the indigenously built Agni, or Fire, series, part of a programme that started in the 1960s. Earlier versions could reach old rival Pakistan and western China.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is increasing its arsenal of nuclear warheads and developing short-range, tactical nuclear weapons, raising concern about an escalating South Asian arms race, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said on Thursday.

The think-tank said in a report the race with Pakistan was increasing the risk of a nuclear exchange during a conventional conflict, perhaps sparked by an act of terrorism.

The Agni-V missile was first tested in April 2012. It is mostly domestically built and has a range of about 5,000 kilometres. Only the UN Security Council permanent members – China, France, Russia the United States and Britain – along with Israel, are believed to have such long-range weapons.

Gupta said India was now ready to start a process of production and subsequent induction of the missile. – Times of Malta