De Ruyter to have his say on graft claims

Former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter is expected to appear before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts to explain his allegations of ANC links to corruption and maladministration at the utility.

On Wednesday De Ruyter will appear virtually before the committee to elaborate on issues that he raised in a televised interview with eNCA’s Annika Larsen that was aired in February. He told Larsen there was evidence to indicate that some in the ANC saw Eskom as a “feeding trough”. The interview led to rebukes from President Cyril Ramaphosa and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, who have publicly called on De Ruyter to come forward with evidence.

Also in parliament this week, the select committee on public enterprises & communication will be briefed by Eskom on its tariff increase for 2023/24, which was granted by the National Energy Regulator of SA. The regulator also approved a 12.74% tariff increase for 2024/25. The decision will allow Eskom to recover revenue of R318bn in 2023 and R352bn in 2024.

On Saturday electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the ANC national executive committee had discussed the possibility of using some of the funds to be collected from the tariff increase to finance the use of Eskom’s diesel-powered, open-cycle gas turbines as part of short-term measures over the next six months to ease load-shedding.

The open-cycle gas turbines are needed to compensate for the loss of capacity due to breakdowns at Eskom’s coalfired power stations.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will host President Sauli

Väinämö Niinistö of Finland from April 24 to 26. The visit was planned for April 2020, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The objective of the session is to strengthen trade and investment relations between SA and Finland through the mobilisation and facilitation of new investments, expansion and nurturing of existing Finnish investments in SA, as well as exploring opportunities for joint ventures in technology commercialisation in mutual sectors,” said presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.

Ramaphosa will on Thursday lead Freedom Day celebrations in the North West. This year April 27 marks the 29th anniversary of SA’s first democratic election.

Newly elected City of Ekurhuleni mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana is scheduled to host his first state of the city address on Tuesday after the dramatic ousting of former DA mayor Tania Campbell through a noconfidence vote in March.

Ngodwana, of the African Independent Congress, was voted in with the help of the ANC and EFF partnership.