The fugitive former chair of a construction firm accused of bribery in South Africa was extradited to Johannesburg earlier today (20 September) to face charges of defrauding power utility Eskom, South African news site IOL reports.
The extradition of Michael Lomas, former chairman of contractor Tubular Construction, comes more than three years after he was arrested in London, UK, in April 2021.
The South African Times reported that he arrived in a wheelchair at OR Tambo International Airport under heavy police guard.
He was wanted in connection with an investigation into possible fraud and bribery during the construction of the massive Kusile coal-fired power station in the eastern Transvaal.
‘Fled the country’
Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, a spokesperson for the South African Police Services, told news agency AFP: “Lomas was an Eskom contractor and is wanted for fraud and corruption in excess of 1.5 billion rand [$86m] that happened between 2008 and 2018 at Kusile Power station.”
She added: “He allegedly manipulated contracts. He was previously arrested, got bail and fled the country to the UK.”
Lomas was indicted in South Africa in December 2019 along with four other suspects: two ex-Eskom executives and two businessmen.
After his 2021 arrest in London, Lomas was released on bail, which was set at £100,000 with an additional £250,000 surety.
A court in London ruled last month that Lomas could be extradited after South African authorities argued that they could monitor his mental health issues.
The co-accused are Eskom executives Frans Hlakudi and Abram Masango, businessman Maphoko Kgomoeswana and Antonio Trindade, the chief executive of Tubular Construction.
South African prosecutors allege that the Eskom managers were given bribes of $1.7m each by Trindade and Lomas, resulting in overpayments to suppliers and an inflation in the cost of the power station.
Power problems
In April of this year, the South African government began auctioning property seized in connection with its investigation into what it believes to have been widespread corruption at the Kusile project.
It started in 2008, and was intended to ease South Africa’s chronic shortages of electricity supply, which at that time was causing frequent blackouts.
At the same time, Eskom started building the Medupi power station in nearby Limpopo province.
Both were to have six 800MW turbines, giving a total increase of 9.6GW in the country’s installed capacity.
It was deemed enough to solve supply problems, but both projects suffered labour unrest, absenteeism, violence, faulty design and poor workmanship, in addition to what is thought to be endemic corruption.
As a result, it was 16 years before Kusile added its fifth unit to the South African grid, bringing the total output of the station to 4GW. The sixth turbine is expected to be synchronised in November.
The total cost of the Kusile project is believed to be in the region of $8.7bn, compared with an original estimate of $3.9bn in 2007.
The original price was covered by a $3.8bn loan from the World Bank, topped up with $806m from the US Export–Import Bank.
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