Matshela Koko lashes NPA after his corruption case struck from roll
More than a year after the first arrests and with the trial still not out of the starting blocks, the Middelburg Regional Court found the case had been unreasonably delayed and struck the matter from the roll.
JOHANNESBURG - Former Eskom boss, Matshela Koko, has lashed out at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), saying it’s doing South Africans a disservice.
This after the graft case against him and 18 others was on Tuesday scrapped.
More than a year after the first arrests and with the trial still not out of the starting blocks, the Middelburg Regional Court found the case had been unreasonably delayed and struck the matter from the roll.
Matshela Koko has described the allegations against him as serious and said the public expects that they must be answered.
"I think we are taking South Africans for a ride. The NPA is doing South Africans a big disservice."
He further describes his prosecution as a “hate crime”, insisting it was manufactured in a bid to justify his dismissal from Eskom.
"You can’t make such allegations, investigate them for five years, bring me to court, wake me up at 6 in the morning and more than 12 months later you’re not ready to go to trial. What we see here is a hate crime. What’s happened to me and my family is nothing short of hate crime. It’s hate for Koko."
It’s not necessarily the end of the matter, with the state still able to reinstate the case at a later stage as long as it gets written instructions from the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).
But Koko maintains that if and when that happens, he’s ready.
