Former Trillian financial advisory CEO Mosilo Mothepu has told how staff were transferred between Transnet and Eskom after the power utility was “identified as the next cash cow” in a bid to channel funds to Trillian Capital Partners.

Mothepu testified before Parliament’s public enterprises committee inquiry into state capture on Tuesday. She was one of the original whistle-blowers in Thuli Madonsela’s state of capture report.

She detailed how Trillian Capital and its predecessor‚ Regiments‚ had managed to secure business at Transnet‚ Eskom‚ SA Express and Denel‚ often without contracts.

Mothepu said she didn’t realise it at the time‚ but in hindsight she could see how the movement of finance director Anjoj Singh and Brian Molefe from Transnet to Eskom had been a “modus operandi” to get into the Eskom coffers.

“Transnet and Eskom are the largest SOEs with the largest budgets. With Anoj Singh and Brian Molefe with Regiment and McKinsey getting big fees‚ they identified that the next cash cow was Eskom‚” she said.

Key in ensuring securing these deals was Trillian partner Salim Essa‚ who is regularly linked to the Guptas.

“In every SOE‚ Salim had some kind of relationship with a board member there‚” she said.

At Eskom‚ Mothepu and her team were given contractor passes and space in a boardroom in order to do their work which involved “cash-unlocking initiatives” including settling the insurance claim for the Duvha boiler which exploded.

Trillian was paid R600-million for this work but Mothepu said she did not believe that their services had been necessary or that Eskom received value for money on the deal because Eskom’s own internal staff were qualified to do the work‚ and had the capacity to complete it.

She said that Trillian group CEO Eric Wood had an “inappropriate” relationship with Singh.

“Sometimes we were given stuff on a silver platter that other companies did not seem to have. Singh would give us Eskom information on a memory stick to boost our proposals‚” she said.

At Transnet‚ she took the lead on a project to raise billions in local capital to “blend” with a $2.5-billion loan from the Chinese Development Bank to make it more affordable to finance the procurement of 1‚064 locomotives.

She said she had worked tirelessly on the project but Regiment was not paid for the raising of the capital‚ as it had already been paid a fee for their work on the Chinese Development Bank.

“Imagine my amazement when I saw that R93-million paid to Trillian for that club loan. Trillian had no role in it. In 2015‚ Transnet had no contractual arrangement with Trillian that would lead to them invoicing them for R93-million.”

At SA Express Trillian received a R5.7-million fee after they attempted to secure a bond issue to help finance a new fleet. However‚ Treasury declined to the guarantee necessary to secure the bond issue and the deal fell through.

Mothepu said this was highly irregular. “You get paid on successful placement‚ if there is no money‚ you don’t get paid‚” she said.

She also believed that Wood had made “hundreds of millions of rands” by purchasing dollars ahead of then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s axing in 2015.

Mothepu said Wood had told her in October that the minister would be axed‚ and had sent her an email detailing projects the new finance minister would approve‚ and the amount of money Trillian would make off them.