Two former Eskom executives and two business directors were granted bail of R300 000 each in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Thursday.
They were arrested in raids in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in collaboration with the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigative Directorate.
They face a string of charges that include fraud, corruption and money laundering linked to a R745 million contract awarded in 2015 to build two Air Cooled Condenser (ACC) units at Kusile power station.
In court were former Eskom Group executive, Abraham Masango, former senior manager, Frans Hlakudi as well as Antonio Jose Trindade and Hudson Kgomoeswana.
Hawks spokesperson, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, said that one of their bail conditions is that they must surrender their passports to the investigating officer.
In an earlier statement, he said that their investigations began when suspicions were raised about the construction of two large projects at Medupi and Kusile power stations.
"This revealed that there was apparent gross manipulation of contractual agreements between contractors, Eskom employees and third parties at Kusile power station," he said.
Mulaudzi said the probe pointed to the fact that the contract was manipulated in a number of ways through the manipulation of Eskom's procurement system by senior officials and the "de-scoping of the contract at Kusile without justification and with conflict of interest by Eskom employees".
"It is alleged that from February 2015 to July 2017, the appointed companies, other related entities and individuals shared approximately R30 million amongst themselves."
The case against the four was postponed to 25 May 2020.
