The chairperson of the Eskom board Mpho Makwana says dealing with corruption is central to creating an uplifting work environment at the power utility.
His statement comes after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) to respond to the former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter’s allegations of fraud, corruption and crime cartels at the power utility.
A private intelligence report was released after De Ruyter commissioned an investigation into the allegations.
Makwana has told the media that corruption has hampered progress in Eskom.
“Corruption undermines value creation and is an enemy of progress. It must be uprooted completely so that it does not hinder our efforts for performance improvement. We see the fruits of collaboration between our internal forensic department, the SAPS, and the SIU in dealing with cases of corruption.”
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Breach of POPI and PFMA Acts
Makwana says the power utility’s former CEO Andre de Ruyter has broken the board’s trust, citing de Ruyter’s damning allegations of corruption and political interference at Eskom in his latest book.
According to Makwana, de Ruyter has breached the Protection of Personal Information and the Public Finance Management Act as well as his own employment contract.
Makwana says an independent investigation into de Ruyter’s actions will be conducted through the board’s audit and risk committee.
“We also take note of what the former GE said in his book, it must be noted and set on record that trust was broken by him making those public statements and the publication of the book, and this trust was broken in the most repulsive manner possible, transgressions in the course of publishing this book, transgressions were carried by an executive who was in a fiduciary position, in possession of proprietary information of a national key point, who himself evaded being vetted by processes that involved our national security agency.”
