EDITORIAL: Gordhan faces critical Scopa questions on De Ruyter’s Eskom claims

This week parliament’s standing committee on public accounts will continue to delve into allegations by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter about high-level political involvement in crime, sabotage and corruption at the state-owned power utility.

Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan is due to appear before the committee on Wednesday.

It has been a frustrating process for legislators and South Africans following the proceedings up to now.

After De Ruyter’s astonishingly candid interview on eNCA on February 21, which contributed to his early exit from Eskom, the former CEO was decidedly less talkative when he appeared before Scopa on April 26.

Subsequent appearances in parliament by the new and former Eskom chairs and the heads of law enforcement have not been particularly illuminating either.

During last week’s sitting with the SA Police Service, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) and the Special Investigating Unit it was revealed that the national police commissioner, Gen  Fannie Masemola, knew about the privately funded investigation into corruption at Eskom initiated by De Ruyter, but it appeared he did not show much interest in learning what that investigation yielded.

However, the Hawks and the police minister denied knowledge of the investigation. Regardless of their knowledge,  MPs were disappointed at the apparent lack of interest shown in taking action.

The agencies’ own investigations were being conducted at a “glacial pace”, said one MP. Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa drew the link between slow action by law enforcement and escalation in load-shedding.

“The collapse of Eskom at the hands of syndicates is a major cause of load-shedding. If your interventions were working, we would be seeing some sense of reduction in criminal activity,” he said.

Eskom chair Mpho Makwana’s appearance proved equally frustrating for Scopa members. Makwana was largely dismissive of De Ruyter, saying that his claims about corruption at Eskom were “old matters cited as if they were new”. However, he failed to convince MPs that Eskom has shown sufficient urgency in trying to get to the bottom of De Ruyter’s more serious claims about political involvement in corruption at the utility.

The work being done by Scopa is relevant to the power crisis. The committee is trying to understand how sabotage, corruption, crime and mismanagement continued after the state capture years, and how this contributed to SA now facing unprecedented power cuts that are worsening poverty, hunger and unemployment.

The committee members want to know how much government and law enforcement authorities knew about the wide-ranging crime and corruption that was contributing to Eskom’s financial troubles and poor operational performance.

Like many South Africans, they also want to understand if those who were in a position to fight back against the criminals gutting Eskom did so with the urgency the crisis required.

The big questions that Gordhan will have to answer this week will probably be about the allegations De Ruyter made in the eNCA interview on political involvement. These allegations, for which he is being sued by the ANC, include the suggestion that Eskom was a feeding trough for the ANC and being told by one minister that he should “enable some people to eat a little bit”.

Gordhan will probably also face questions about De Ruyter’s claims that criminal cartels active in Eskom’s coal-supply chain have connections with high-ranking  politicians. This is an allegation that De Ruyter repeated in his book — Truth to Power, My Three Years Inside Eskom — which hit the shelves on Sunday.

In the book, Sunday Times reports, De Ruyter writes that he told Gordhan and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security adviser Sydney Mufamadi the names of two top politicians implicated in the sabotage.

When he appeared before Scopa on April 26, via a video link, De Ruyter refused to name the politician or politicians involved in Eskom corruption and suggested Scopa ask Gordhan, Mufamadi or the Hawks to disclose this.

While much remains shrouded in secrecy and purported ignorance, what has become clear through the Scopa probe is that Eskom, the government and law enforcement know that at least a couple of stages of load-shedding are the result of continuing crime and corruption at power stations.

If there is any truth in De Ruyter’s claim of political involvement and profiteering from these crimes, no amount of maintenance will fix the electricity crisis as long as Eskom remains fair game for plunderers.