Two weeks ago Nkonki chief executive Mitesh Patel resigned after amaBhungane revealed that his R107-million buyout of the audit firm was funded by Gupta lieutenant Salim Essa. Now we explore the role that Eskom played in the next phase of its own exploitation by financing Essa in turn. By Susan Comrie and Stefaans Brümmer.

For two years, the Gupta family and their business partner Salim Essa were the Bank of Eskom's favoured clients.

When they were short of cash to buy Optimum Coal, Eskom obliged with a hastily-arranged R1.6-billion bank guarantee and a 21:00 conference call that delivered a R659-million prepayment for coal.

Now we can reveal how two more Eskom payments totalling R329-million were pushed through in equal haste, seemingly to fund another Essa venture: the acquisition of pioneering black auditing firm Nkonki Inc, which TimesLive reports has taken a decision to voluntary liquidate its Sunninghill operation after an announcement by the Auditor General's office that it would no longer be making use of the firm.

The payments were made to Essa's Trillian Capital Partners in late 2016 and early 2017 on the back of a settlement with consulting multinational McKinsey - despite two teams of experts questioning their...