Calling all whistle-blowers…
DEPUTY President David Mabuza has called on those who have information about state capture to come forward and give details to law enforcement authorities.
Mabuza told MPs in the National Council of Provinces yesterday that the call was not only directed to those at Eskom, but other state-owned entities (SOEs) too.
Several former and current officials at SOEs have given evidence before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry about the looting of state entities.
Mabuza was in Parliament to answer questions on some of the issues related to Eskom’s financial woes.
He said there had been attempts to get to the bottom of the crisis at the power utility.
“In terms of all these SOEs, it is not Eskom alone. We still call on our people to come forward on whatever wrong was done,” said Mabuza.
He admitted that the financial problems at Eskom were deep-seated.
He said Eskom had failed to conduct maintenance on its power stations and that had led to load shedding.
He said some of the plants had experienced breakdowns and that the restructuring of Eskom could help the utility get back to business.
When he was in China a few weeks ago, Mabuza said he found that there were five generation companies, two transmission companies and three distribution companies.
This, he said, allowed China to avoid the risk of load shedding if one power plant had a breakdown, or was undergoing maintenance.
“In restructuring Eskom, we will consider two or three companies in generation, transmission and distribution. In this case, we can isolate and insulate problems (at Eskom)...” said Mabuza.
Mabuza highlighted that government was still hard at work in dealing with the land question.
He said this was an important programme of the government’s.
One of the things they would do in the redistribution programme was to help small-scale farmers. This would help contribute to the economy and increase agricultural production.
Mabuza chairs the inter-ministerial committee on land reform.
Parliament is also busy with the amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.
In the meantime, the government has said it will identify parcels of land belonging to the state that will be redistributed to those who needed it.
Chairperson of the ad hoc committee on land expropriation Mathole Motshekga has said that they would be able to meet the deadline of March next year to table a bill on the amendment to the Constitution.
However, the opposition has complained about the short period for public hearings on constitutional amendments to land expropriation.