De Ruyter’s explosive claims of ANC corruption at Eskom on shaky ground: report
Several dossiers and reports given to former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter containing information about widespread corruption at the embattled power utility, implicating senior ANC members and members of cabinet, appear to be based on hearsay, speculation and conjecture, News24 reports.
De Ruyter made waves across the country in February, revealing in an explosive interview with ENCA that he was aware of senior politicians being directly involved with and entrenched in corruption at Eskom, accusing the ANC in particular of using the power utility as a ‘feeding trough’.
He said he brought the allegations to the attention of a cabinet member – later revealed to be Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan – and lamented that nothing was done with the information.
Following the interview, de Ruyter went to ground and disappeared, while the ANC and implicated politicians were left denying the allegations and calling for de Ruyter to provide evidence and lay charges to make his case.
Parliament ultimately voted against setting up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the allegations. However, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) managed to secure a day with the former CEO – with de Ruyter expected to appear before the committee (virtually) on Wednesday (26 April).
In a series of articles ahead of de Ruyter’s appearance before Scopa, however, News24 revealed that the allegations that have landed the exec in the hot seat and in the crosshairs of the ANC are without substance.
The media house said it had got its hands on 13 “analysis reports” from an external intelligence group commissioned by de Ruyter to investigate corruption at Eskom, which contained many of the claims made by the former CEO during his interview.
In follow-ups with the people in charge of the intelligence group and the operative leading the investigations, News24 got confirmation that there was no actual evidence backing up the allegations, simply input and claims made by “sources” and conjecture from the investigators.
The latest revelations from News24 echo similar sentiments expressed by Daily Maverick in February, soon after de Ruyter first made the claims, where the news group’s sources said that much of the information at hand was “intelligence”, not “evidence”.
De Ruyter was reticent in his February interview, not revealing names or implicating individuals directly.
However, he specifically singled out the ANC as being involved in corruption, drawing its ire, and his mention of high-level politicians being involved made the matter of national importance.
The former Eskom chief will appear before Scopa to answer questions about his claims at 09h00.
In his written submission, seen by Bloomberg, he repeated his claims that more than R1 billion is being stolen from Eskom every month – and the figure is likely to be conservative.
He also said that he faced internal resistance to measures he implemented to try and curb corruption at Eskom and pointed to cartels operating inside and outside the company.
Scopa’s mandate is limited to the financial aspects of Eskom, and the wider, political implications and questions may go unanswered.
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