(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s graft ombudsman requested that a complainant in an alleged corruption case respond to its provisional findings more than six weeks after he had died of Covid-19. 

Mark Chettiar had asked the Public Protector to investigate how Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan had handled a complaint he had laid against the state power utility’s chief operating officer, Jan Oberholzer. 

The Public Protector wrote to Chettiar on Aug. 16 requesting his response to its initial findings, but he didn’t respond within the 10 stipulated working days, it said in its final report issued on Nov. 30. It cleared Eskom’s board, Gordhan and Oberholzer of wrongdoing. Chettiar, who had worked for Eskom for 22 years, died on June 30. 

Oupa Segalwe, a spokesman for the Public Protector, said in a response to a query that “the team probably wasn’t aware that he was dead.”

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