Chairperson of the African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP), Patrice Motsepe, is adamant that his hands are clean and all his energy deals are above board.
He has dismissed allegations that his company is benefiting directly from the Department of Energy which is headed by his brother in-law Jeff Radebe.
In 2018, the department signed deals with Independent Power Producers (IPP) after which critics said Motsepe’s company was one of the beneficiaries.
Speaking to the media in Johannesburg earlier on Monday, Motsepe said his company had not participated in the department’s IPP projects whose total equity value was R47.2 billion.
In an official statement read by AREP CEO Brian Dames, Motsepe confirmed that the company was involved in renewable energy projects with private companies, not government.
“We are living at a time when there is election and lots of issues are going to be said and we are a democracy and even if I didn’t have these relatives in government I have a fundamental duty and obligation, not just to me, to be transparent, but also to be ethical and accountable.”
Motsepe says they have cautiously avoided doing business with government.
“We didn’t acquire a single … not one of the projects that we are involved with we got from government. We got them from the private sector on a bidding process and you know what happened, we had to pay more than the other people who were bidding with us and we committed more than R400 million of our own money; not borrowed money, our own money! Because it’s perception, because the fact is we have cautiously avoided doing business with government. We don’t like doing business with government. It has its own complications.”
