Diversified miner Glencore says the suggestion that it had involved President Cyril Ramaphosa, who used to be the chairperson of the Optimum coal mine, in the acquisition of Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH) with a view to, or with the expectation of leveraging his influence to achieve amendments to OCH’s coal supply agreement (CSA) with power utility Eskom is “false and baseless”. This is in response to allegations made by former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe at the Zondo Commission on March 2. According to News24.com, Molefe claimed that Glencore had used its relationship with Ramaphosa to try to extort money from Eskom when the parties were renegotiating the CSA.