The former acting CEO of South Africa’s state power utility blamed its crippling levels of debt on excessive costs incurred in building new plants and denied that it could be attributed to corruption.

Eskom owed R419-billion at the end of its last financial year, and evidence presented by a judicial commission of inquiry has placed it at the epicentre of a looting spree at state companies during former President Jacob Zuma’s almost nine years in office.

Construction of the utility’s two new coal-fired power stations, Medupi and Kusile, is running years behind schedule and the anticipated cost has more than doubled to excess of R300-billion.

The debt was incurred “building assets and there are cost overruns”, Matshela Koko, who was suspended from Eskom in 2017 amid allegations that he was party to the theft and resigned from the utility a year ago, said in an interview with Johannesburg-based Talk Radio 702 on Monday. It was “not as a result of stealing”, he said.

Koko allegedly guaranteed R6.5-billion in future contracts to Asea Brown Boveri on condition the Zurich-based electrical engineering firm subcontracted work on Kusile to his stepdaughter’s business, the Sunday Times reported at the weekend, citing a report by the nation’s Special Investigating Unit. Koko has denied any wrongdoing. — Reported by Nkululeko Ncana, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP