Report clearing De Ruyter of racism claims tabled in Parliament

Eskom has officially tabled before Parliament the report which exonerated Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter on allegations of racism.

Eskom Board Chairperson, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts Committee that the investigation found no basis for such allegations.

De Ruyter was accused by the former Chief Procurement Officer, Solly Tshitangano, of racism, among other things. The power utility says its investigation found no basis for those allegations.

Makgoba adds that De Ruyter has also been cleared of allegations of nepotism, patronage, and abuse of power.

“The major serious issue that had been driven through this report and through the media was the allegations of racism and clearly the findings of Advocate Semenya was that there was no basis for such allegations. There were also I think allegations of breach of procedures and undermining the board none could be substantiated,” he says.

Eskom recently released its results into the investigation: 

Eskom was also grilled about deviations and expansions. Committee members criticised the management for failing to do due diligence in some of the contracts it applied for deviations that were rejected by the National Treasury.

Committee chairperson, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, cautioned the power utility against abusing this method.

“I want to really reiterate that at the heart of what may seem to be a not clear outlook on these issues of expansion and deviations is the trend which we have been observing, an undesirable one in fact and abuse to circumvent due process and thorough process and so we need to be ultimately convinced that there was no other recourse than the application to the national treasury for an expansion to be applied for.”