André de Ruyter appeared virtually before Scopa – parliament’s standing committee on public accounts – on Wednesday, but said little new about corruption at Eskom, the state-owned utility he led until February.
For the three hours he had set aside to answer MPs’ questions, he spent much of his time patiently repeating the same answer: that he took all the necessary steps to inform law enforcement authorities of the theft and corruption at Eskom, as required by the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act – and that now the investigation now lies in the hands of the police.
De Ruyter complained of interventions in the day-to-day operations of the utility by public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, which he said made life difficult; said there was proof of cartels; and that corruption in Mpumalanga, where many of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations are located, was particularly rife.
But none of this information is new. Questioned on the appointment of a private organisation to conduct intelligence gathering on Eskom, De Ruyter said it is necessary because national keypoints needed to be protected, and so private funders were approached to facilitate a report.
“The intelligence gathering was not done by Eskom, nor were Eskom funds used,” he said. After the police were made aware of the report, 43 arrests were made and members of the police were stationed at various Eskom sites.
Despite repeated questions from various MPs, he steadfastly refused to name the senior politicians allegedly involved in corruption at Eskom, saying he does not want to jeopardise the police investigations. “It is not my job to interfere in policing. My job was to manage Eskom,” he said.
Read: Eskom R1-billion/month theft estimate ‘conservative’: De Ruyter
“I leave the criminal investigations to General [Fannie] Masemola and the police. But one of the major issues in this matter is the lack of efficiency of the criminal justice system. It is the national police commissioner’s duty to apprehend and prosecute criminals, not my job,” De Ruyter said pointedly. – © 2023 NewsCentral Media
