A British businessman, who was formerly a contract worker for South Africa’s ailing energy company Eskom, has been extradited from the United Kingdom to face trial for corruption and fraud.
Michael Lomas is accused of accepting bribes over contracts between his company, Tubular Construction, and Eskom for work on the Kusile power station worth more than R1.5 billion ($85 million: £64 million).
“He is alleged to have manipulated contracts. He was arrested earlier, granted bail and fled the country to the UK,” national police spokesman Brigadier Athlenda Mathe told AFP.
He has not yet responded to the allegations against him.
Eskom has been plagued by allegations of corruption and is struggling to recover from years of mismanagement that have led to prolonged power outages in the country.
Mr. Lomas landed at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg early on Friday morning, confined to a wheelchair and under heavy police escort.
Ms Mathe told local news website News24 that one of the conditions for the extradition was that a doctor would be on board the plane due to Mr Lomas’s poor health.
He will be formally charged at Kempton Park District Court later on Friday.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) requested Mr Lomas’ extradition in 2022, but the extradition was postponed because he appealed. This appeal was ultimately rejected.
He was accused along with four other alleged accomplices – two senior executives at Eskom and two other businessmen. They were arrested in 2019.
The remaining four men have been charged with fraud, money laundering and corruption, for allegedly accepting bribes and inflating the cost of work at the Kusile power plant.
This was intended to alleviate South Africa’s dire power shortages, but the project has been plagued by delays and disruptions, AFP reported.
Mr Mathe said Mr Lomas was a “wanted fugitive” who would be handed over to the Hawks, the police unit that investigates economic crime, corruption and organised crime.
Hawks has been working on this case since 2017, when an employee filed a complaint about one of the tenders.
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