Cape Town - The ANC's - through Chancellor House - investment in a company that supplies boilers to build the Medupi power station was not colluding in any way with Eskom, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Wednesday.
Motlanthe was answering a question raised by the opposition in the National Assembly on whether the ANC's investment arm Chancellor House was taking advantage of South Africans, with the delay of the Medupi power project and through the share the investment arm has in Hitachi Africa.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Motlanthe said Chancellor House was a company that engaged in investment both inside and outside of the country.
"Ideally, it should not do business with government, at all," he said. "But in this case that you are citing they (Chancellor House) invested their money in Hitachi Africa, without knowing..."
He said Chancellor House had invested in Hitachi Africa, before the company got the contract to supply boilers to Eskom for the Medupi power project.
"They (Chancellor House) did not put their money in Hitachi Africa to produce boilers for Eskom. Hitachi Africa got the project later. Those are the facts," he said.
"So ideally I am saying they (Chancellor House) should never ever do business with government," Motlanthe said, but he pointed out that investors had no control over where a company put its money.
However, he said, the government would act if any evidence of corruption was uncovered.
"Where there is clear evidence of manipulation we will be the first ones to say 'let's deal with this'," he said.
On a question from Cope member Smuts Ngonyama on what the government was doing to tackle corruption and change the tender system to guard against graft, Motlanthe assured MPs that the government was serious about tackling corruption.
Motlanthe pointed out the measures outlined by the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan to improve the government's procurement process.
These included the appointment of a chief procurement officer, strengthening procurement processes, developing price reference system, strengthening the tax clearance system and a review of all property leases outlined by the Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi.
"I would say that as government we are on course, given the number of instruments that have been enacted to fight against corruption," he said.
However, he added that all of the government's anti-corruption measures would be wasted if the state was not being perceived to be taking efforts to cut down graft.
