By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A British businessman, Michael Lomas has been extradited from the UK to face 65 counts of corruption in South Africa where he was a former contractor for the country’s power utility firm, Eskom.
Lomas is alleged to have received kickbacks on contracts between his firm, Tubular Construction, and Eskom for a project at the Kusile power station, worth over 1.4bn rand ($80m; £60m).
“He allegedly manipulated contracts. He was previously arrested, got bail and fled the country to the UK,” AFP quoted the national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe as saying.
Eskom has struggled with corruption allegations and has had difficulty recovering from years of mismanagement that has led to prolonged blackouts in the country.
In a wheelchair and under heavy police escort, Lomas landed at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg in the early hours of Friday.
The police spokesperson said one of the conditions of the extradition was to have a medical doctor on the plane because of Lomas’s poor health.
He made a brief appearance at Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court before the case was adjourned.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) requested Lomas’s extradition in 2022, but it was delayed while he lodged several appeals, which were rejected.
Heritage Times HT recalls that last month, the chief executive of the troubled power utility Eskom resigned amid high nationwide power blackouts of up to 10 hours daily.
Andre de Ruyter’s resignation came amid pressure from the public and various stakeholders as Eskom has failed to save South Africa from electricity crisis that has worsened by the day, a development attributed to prolonged corruption and theft.
An investigation into corruption in government and state-owned enterprises placed Eskom at the epic-centre of massive revelations about corruption in government during former President Jacob Zuma’s tenure from 2009 to 2018.
