The commission has resumed, with Zondo asking Matona about the relationship between then-Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, and Eskom's board. 

Matona says the board of a state-owned enterprise has a full mandate to take decisions in the interest of the company, but he was told by the board that their position was that of Minister Brown when they told him he would not be able to return to his post. 

The commisison adjourns for a lunch break. It will return at 14:25. 

Matona says he was told by Eskom that he had not done anything wrong, and he later learned that the results of the internal inquiry found he had done nothing wrong. 

The Chairperson of the inquiry, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, asks Matona if he was ever able to established why the board did not want to work with him. 

"I could not establish, exactly, what was the reason," he says. 

The board, says Matona, did a "complete somersault" between the meetings of March 9 and March 11. 

His conclusion was there had been some intervention "from outside". 

He says he now suspects he was removed to "make way" so that other people could be put into key positions at Eskom - he mentions the name of Brian Molefe - but adds he had "no facts". 

Matona then decided to approach the labour court, as the act of suspending him was "brazen and irrational". 

He says the labour court found his suspension was unfair. 

The judge then referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).  

Matona says he was still hoping he could get his job back at this stage, but Eskom was not open to this. 

He says Eskom was represented by then-Chairperson Ben Ngubane, among others, at the first CCMA meeting. 

The two sides then received leave to interact directly. 

He says he was told by representatives of Eskom at their next meeting that while they could "do a deal" he could not return to his old job, and this was the view of the board and the shareholder - the department of public enterprises. 

He says if he remembers correctly it was former Eskom board member Romeo Kumalo that gave him the news. 

In the end, he said, he decided to not fight Eskom any further and rather take 12 months separation pay. 

He said the costs of fighting for his reinstatement were mounting while Eskom had large coffers. 

The suspension letter, that the inquiry is now dealing with, states that Matona made representations to the board about his possible suspension. 

He denies this. 

"I am shocked. I am confused. I don't know what to do". 

"I took this letter and I left". 

He says that, according to the suspension letter, he should have no contact with the company. 

He said he was not subsequently contacted by anyone from either Eskom or the people meant to conduct the inquiry.   

Matona says it was Brown who asked him to leave the board meeting. 

"I duly obliged, I picked up my stuff and left the meeting". 

He says he did not know what took place in the meeting. He went to his office and waited there. 

He says that he was later called and told by then-Chairperson Zola Tsotsi that the inquiry would continue and he should be "absent". He asked what this meant, and was told it did not mean he was suspended, but he should 'recuse himself".

Later that day he was handed a letter of suspension. 

The inquiry is now looking at the letter of suspension, which the media does not yet have access to. 

Matona says there was no talk of suspensions when the resolution and memorandum were first seen at the meeting of March 9, 2015. 

Matona says that, on March 11 - at the second board meeting - he provided the board with an overview of the latest developments from Eskom's war room.

Then Minister Brown arrived, and he was then asked to recuse himself.  

The inquiry focuses on a memorandum presented by Eskom's new board on March 9, 2015, indicating that it needs "independent and objective insight" into the failings at Eskom. 

According to an affidavit read out by the evidence leader, the memorandum was not drafted by the board but by Nick Linnell, a business consultant who had worked in the past with Dudu Myeni. 

Matona, the power utility's former CEO, says the memorandum was surprising, and he did not know the connection to Linnell until today. 

"There was no indication who the author of this was," says Matona, saying he believed at had been drafted by the board itself on behalf of its then Chairperson Zola Tsotsi. 

The former Eskom CEO says the memorandum was also surprising as the new board had only had one of two interactions with him. 

"It made me wonder where this was coming from?" 

The memorandum called for the board to mandate an independent "unimpeded" external inquiry to look into the facts of failings at Eskom. 

Matona says at the meeting on the 9th of March the board "did not know where this was coming from". 

The resolution was, however, adopted at the board's next meeting two days later that was attended by then-Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown. 

This meeting led to Matona's suspension. 

The commission, which keeps jumping between different meetings of Eskom's board, now focuses again on the meeting of March 11, 2015, where Matona was suspended. 

The former CEO says he first reported back to the board about the outcomes of meetings of Eskom's war room. 

He says he expected his presentation to be followed by a discussion, but there were no questions or concerns raised. 

Matona says minutes of the meeting should show that no concerns were raised. 

Matona now talks about the "War Room", established by Cabinet in December 2014. 

He says the war room was supposed to bring together different departments involved in the supply of electricity to the country. 

Matona says he attended war room sessions. Eskom's board did not. 

He says he thought at the time that it was a "good initiative". 

The war room was chaired by then-Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

Matona now moves on to talking about the need for an inquiry into the affairs at Eskom in 2015, including load shedding, debt and funding shortfalls. 

He says problems at the state-owned utility had been building up for some time, and an inquiry was not necessary because "we knew the problems". 

"What was required was solutions," states Matona. 

The commisison of inquiry is now starting to touch on issues that were previously raised by Parliament's own inquiry into Eskom.

This inquiry took place in 2017 was carried out by Parliament's oversight committee on public enterprises, which at the time included Pravin Gordhan among its members. 

The report of that inquiry, made public in November 2018, found that parties who had "no legitimate mandate to actively interfere in Eskom’s operational matters allegedly did just that," giving the March 8 meeting in Durban attended by Linnell as an example. 

"As a consequence of this meeting, Mr Tsotsi claimed that he presented the President’s wishes at an urgent board meeting the following day, even though he was aware that the President was not in a position to give lawful instructions to the Board. When the Board voiced concerns about the unlawful interference in its functions, Minister Brown intervened in support of the inquiry and the suspensions," states the report. 

Linnell, is his affidavit, says he went to Megawatt Park in anticipation of being called by the board. 

He says he was told the board was not in agreement, and he left. 

Matona says he was not aware that Linnell at Eskoms headquarters that day.  

The former Eskom CEO says that he is for the first time hearing that it was Linnell who authored the "strange" resolution about the Eskom inquiry. 

Seleka, who is leading the evidence and reading from Linnell's affidavit, has skipped over what was discussed at the meeting on March 8.

Linnell continues to write that he got ready to meet Eskom's board on Monday, March 9, to brief them about the investigation. He says he also forwarded a proposed memorandum and board resolutions to then-Eskom chairperson Zola Tsotsi. 

One of his notes to Tsotsi "emphasised the need to inform the board about the president's role and the key requirements of the proposed inquiry". 

Linnell, in the affidavit, says he was briefed by Myeni about what the Eskom inquiry would entail. 

He was then told that he would have to travel to Durban on March 8 to meet with Zuma for more information. 

In his affidavit, Linnell says he attended a meeting in Durban on Sunday 8 March. Present were Eskom chair Zola Tsotsi, Dudu Myeni and Dudu Myeni's son, and someone introduced as "John". 

Seleka has Linnell's affidavit in front if him and is quoting from it. The media has not yet seen the affidavit. 

Seleka says that in his affidavit, Linnell states he was contacted by Dudu Myeni on March 6 and asked to travel to Pretoria to attend an urgent meeting with her and then-President Jacob Zuma. 

He says Myeni had been a client of his "from time to time" in her representative capacity at SAA and the Mhlathuze Water Board. 

Linnell states in the affidavit that he arrived in Pretoria just after midday and met with Myeni. Zuma was not present. 

He writes that Myeni told him the president was concerned about the state of Eskom and wanted an inquiry. 

"She had recommended to the president that I would be suitable for that role," states the affidavit, which is still being read by Seleka. 

In his affidavit, Linnell says he was invited to the meeting of March 9, 2015, at Eskom. 

Matona says to the best of his recollection Linnell did not attend the meeting. 

He says he cannot remember Linnell's name being brought up in the meeting, either. 

Advocate Seleka, who is leading Matona's evidence, now returns to the meeting on March 9. 

He asks the former CEO about an affidavit submitted by Nick Linnell about the meeting. 

Matona says he did not know Linnell at the time, had never met him. 

The commission is taking a 30 minute break. 

On March 12, 2015, the day after Matona had been suspended, Brown said in a media statement that she had indeed addressed the Eskom board  “sharing my concerns, fears and frustration about the state of affairs of the state-owned company”.

"As shareholder representative, I am concerned about the instability at power plants, the financial liquidity of the utility, the lack of credible information, the unreliable supply of electricity and its dire impact on our economy, progress with the build programme, overruns at Medupi and Kusile and delays of the investigation into incidents at Majuba and Dubha and the issue of coal and diesel pricing," said Brown at the time. 

Brown, who continue to serve as minister of public enterprises until 2018, was later heavily criticised by Pravin Gordhan in a separate Parliamentary inquiry into Eskom for "denials" that state capture existed. 

In November 2017 Gordhan told his former Cabinet colleague that her only answer to state capture allegations is "denial, denial, denial", and citing the "suspensions of officials who are actually innocent" among other charges. 

Brown, meanwhile, denied being involved in any type of state capture, saying she had "never consulted with anyone on my executive functions."

Gordhan was named minister of public enterprises in February 2018, taking over from Brown. 

Matona says that before the meeting on March 11 where he had been suspended, there had been a "very brief" meeting on March 9 where Eskom's board had been informed that the then-minister of public enterprises wanted an inquiry into Eskom. 

The minister at the time was Lynne Brown.

He said the board asked the minister to speak to them directly, which took place on March 11. 

Matona says the letter of his suspension "came as a shock". 

He says he was not given the opportunity to give representations to the board at the time. 

Matona says the board that suspended him was fairly new, and the issues of an inquiry into Eskom and his suspension were likely the first substantive issues the board had to deal with. 

It may have been the board's first meeting, he says. 

Matona says the Eskom's then-Chairperson, Zola Tsotsi, told him decision to undertake an inquiry came from the then-minister of public enterprises and then-President, Jacob Zuma. 

Matona says the word "suspension" was not specifically used at first. 

"I was a bit confused about where this was going," he said, adding the board just said he should not be there. 

Half an hour later he was served with a letter of suspension "right there and then" after just five months in the post. 

The chairperson of the board at the time was Zola Tsotsi, who chaired the meeting that chose to suspend him.  

Matona says the reason he was given by the board for his suspension at the time, was that an inquiry into the affairs of Eskom was needed, and he should not be present while the inquiry took place. 

The former CEO says he did not agree with the decision. 

Matona, who joined Eskom in October 2014, now talks about his suspension from the utility on 11 March 2015 at the end of a board meeting that had commenced that morning.

He says he had been asked to recuse himself from the meeting. 

This is not the first time that Matona has testified before an inquiry into Eskom. 

He previously gave evidence before a Parliamentary inquiry into governance at Eskom, where he said that when he arrived at the utility he found it filled with "significant tension" and "serious infighting" within the board. 

Tshediso Matona, who was the head of the power utility for less than a year from late 2014 to March 2015 is now being sworn in. 

Advocate Seleka, SC, is leading the evidence. 

The inquiry has just commenced, about an hour after its scheduled starting time of 09:00. 

Interested parties and legal representatives of some of the people expected to give evidence will now place themselves on the record. 

The commission of inquiry into state capture will on Monday hear evidence from Eskom's former Chief Executive Officer Tshediso Matona.

Matona and the power utility parted ways in May 2015, after Matona was suspended two months earlier for allegedly providing unreliable and inconsistent information to the Eskom war room.

This was the high-level task team headed by then-Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.