Ramaphosa denies knowing any politician involved in Eskom graft
President Cyril Ramaphosa has denied any knowledge of a senior politician involved in Eskom corruption as alleged by the utility’s former CEO, Andre de Ruyter.
When De Ruyter recently appeared before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) he refused to name this politician, but said he had given public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan and the president’s security adviser Sydney Mufamadi the name of the individual. MPs surmised at the time Mufamadi would have informed Ramaphosa of this.
Scopa is busy probing corruption at Eskom and this week met with SA Police Service, the Hawks, the Special Investigating Unit and the Eskom board to establish what they know and have done about it.
It was in this context that Ramaphosa responded to a question by DA leader John Steenhuisen in the National Assembly during a questionand-answer session on Thursday. Steenhuisen wanted to know whether, in line with the government’s stated commitment to fight corruption, Ramaphosa had taken any steps to identify the members of cabinet and other senior government officials alleged by De Ruyter to be involved in corruption at Eskom.
Steenhuisen said it appeared Ramaphosa had done “absolutely nothing” to hold the cabinet ministers involved in corruption accountable.
But Ramaphosa replied: “I have not been presented with any evidence of members of the cabinet or any other senior government officials alleged to be involved in corruption at Eskom. Anyone who does have such evidence should provide that information to the relevant authorities so that a thorough investigation of all credible allegations can be conducted.
“There are institutions whose job it is to investigate these matters as they have the legal mandate, they have the personnel and they also have the capacity to be able to investigate all these matters.”
Corruption at Eskom is public knowledge but “never was information ever put about the personalities that are involved”.
Ramaphosa said from what he has heard the police and the investigating unit had not been given full, detailed information of names, occurrences and so on.
He stressed that the identification of alleged criminals had to be done through an investigative process and not on the basis of rumours and innuendo with no evidence to back them up.
“I need to deal with real evidence,” he said.
The president said corruption and malfeasance at Eskom is of concern and a lot of work has been done in terms of charging and disciplining those involved as well as recovering money. Dedicated teams led by top investigators have been set up to investigate it, soldiers have been deployed to power stations and a lot of progress has been made.
“Coal supply agreements and construction contracts with a value of approximately R11bn have been cancelled by Eskom. Eskom also initiated litigation that resulted in coal supply agreements to the approximate value of R3.7bn being declared invalid. Further losses of approximately R10bn to Eskom were prevented by setting aside other coal supply agreements and construction contracts.
“Eskom is pursuing claims with an approximate value of R4.8bn against suppliers and former directors of Eskom. The utility has recovered approxi
mately R2bn unlawfully paid by Eskom to service providers.
“The Special Investigating Unit has referred some 5,464 matters to Eskom for disciplinary proceedings against employees for their alleged failure to submit financial declarations or to declare or get approval for doing work outside of Eskom.
“There are pending criminal cases or referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority by law enforcement in at least 125 instances and a further 65 referrals to the Asset Forfeiture Unit relating to Eskom.
“At least 25 former senior executives at Eskom have been included in a database of individuals dismissed for their involvement in state capture and corruption at Eskom.
“All this demonstrates that government is proactively investigating and taking action against crime and corruption at Eskom,” Ramaphosa said.
Replying to other questions Ramaphosa reiterated the government’s commitment to establishing a sovereign wealth fund but said this would only be done if it was affordable. He said the government does not have a policy to expropriate the mines.
The Hawks has registered an inquiry into allegations made by Al Jazeera against individuals and syndicates involved in a “gold mafia” in SA, but no arrests have been made as yet.