Criminal cartels operate at Eskom with impunity, stealing billions of rands a month and have brought the utility to its knees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is feedback from former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, who told the Business Day Spotlight\u00a0podcast<\/a>\u00a0that if he had not spoken publicly about the rampant corruption at Eskom, very little would have been done to stop it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt appears that it is, if not explicitly condoned, then at least tolerated, and we simply have to get to grips with the existence of this shadow economy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt seems to me that there are senior people, whether that be in politics or the cartels or both, that are out there and continue to benefit from what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said that he does have some ideas as to who the senior people behind the criminal cartels are but would not elaborate further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n De Ruyter previously estimated that criminal cartels were stealing over R1 billion a month from Eskom, but this figure may be even larger now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe amount of money that is available in this shadow economy, in this criminal enterprise, is so large that they can buy influence. They can buy immunity. At the end of the day, they can buy the direction of policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n De Ruyter said that these criminal elements are delaying the transition from coal to cheaper, greener technologies out of fear that they will lose this chance to enrich themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think only when I said, \u2018But hang on, we have got a very serious problem here\u2019, did we see action being taken with the reshuffling of senior police officials in Mpumalanga, the deployment of soldiers to power stations and whistleblowers coming forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t said that, I don\u2019t think much would have happened, to be honest. It would have been quietly swept under the rug,\u201d De Ruyter said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverybody knows about it, but nobody is prepared to speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n De Ruyter said the pushback he experienced and the pressure he was put under was intense but that it was necessary to bring the corruption at Eskom to light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFundamentally, I had enough information and enough corroborative evidence to suggest that there was something seriously wrong at Eskom, and it was not only old plants that had been poorly maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt had everything to do with the existence of organised crime cartels that operate with a very large degree of impunity at Eskom,\u201d De Ruyter said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This article was originally published by Daily Investor. To read the original, click here<\/a><\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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