Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) member of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Veronica Mente says the only way to get accurate information about alleged criminal activity at Eskom is a parliamentary inquiry.
This follows the appearance of the former CEO of a power utility, Andre de Ruyter, before the committee on Wednesday. He was providing more information to Members of Parliament (MPs) about allegations of corruption, criminal cartels, and other financial irregularities at the SOE. De Ruyter made these allegations during a media interview earlier this year.
However, MPs were not satisfied with De Ruyter’s answers.
Mente says an inquiry is needed. “I think a proper inquiry is the best platform. If it is conducted legally, it will ill force people to speak the truth and to be honest. Do not try to short-circuit us.”
Meanwhile, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) wants several people to appear before it to gain more information regarding criminal activities at Eskom, as revealed by de Ruyter.
Scopa’s chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa says Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Presidential Advisor Sydney Mufamadi are first on the list.
“Before we conclude on an inquiry, we need to get hold of Eskom’s board Minister Pravin Gordhan Sydney Mufamadi, the Auditor General, the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority and only then we can take a decision.”
De Ruyter said he could not corroborate or provide more detail about some of his allegations as he did not have documents and other material that remained with Eskom or law enforcement bodies. He said some of the sources through which he learned of alleged unlawful activities feared for their safety.
An Eskom spokesperson said the company noted “that nothing new surfaced from today’s appearance of Andre de Ruyter at Parliament that is not already dealt with by law enforcement agencies”.
Senior ANC official Fikile Mbalula has rejected the corruption claims de Ruyter levelled against the ruling party and labelled him a failure as CEO.
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The former CEO told Scopa on Wednesday that suspected theft and fraud at Eskom power stations could total over 1.4 billion rand per month. He had previously estimated the losses at R1 billion.
He said he had shared all of his findings with Pravin Gordhan, the minister with political oversight over Eskom.
“I would be very loath to expose myself to any further legal action, particularly in a public forum such as this hearing,” he said, refusing to disclose the names of people allegedly involved in corruption.
He said the biggest losses for the utility could be from coal theft, estimating that if even 5% of Eskom’s spending on coal was stolen it would equal about R500 million per month.
Fraud involving prepaid electricity vouchers could exceed R400 million per month, he said.
Fuel oil also gets stolen, de Ruyter said, adding that at one power station where he witnessed “excessively high fuel oil consumption”, fuel oil costs were reduced by around R100 million after additional controls were put in place.
Theft of infrastructure such as cables, overhead lines, transformers and conductors costs Eskom R170 million per month, while theft in the procurement process could be up to R100 million per month, de Ruyter said.
He said enhanced controls “have slowed down this type of crime, but internal resistance and non-compliance have hamstrung efforts”. -Additional reporting by Reuters.
