Eskom spying far more extensive than admitted
Report suggests ‘disciplinary action’ against managers
ESKOM’S top brass were fully aware that the parastatal had hired an intelligence company to spy on environmental groups and other stakeholders at Medupi, infringing their legal right to privacy.
This emerges from a 10-page report by forensic investigator Bowman Gilfillan, which is in the Sunday Times’s possession.
It shows how the intelligence agency Swartberg gathered personal information — right down to the nail polish they were wearing — on people deemed to be “threats”. The report suggests that “disciplinary action” be taken against the Eskom managers who knew of this.
The spying revelations come during a week in which Eskom has sounded warnings that South Africa may be plunged into darkness owing to a shortfall in capacity, largely because of delays in getting Medupi online.
It suggests the parastatal may have taken its eye off its core job: running a power utility.
The spying was first exposed in February by the Sunday Times, which revealed that a R10-million contract had been signed between Medupi manager Roman Crooks and Swartberg MD Lukas Swart to mitigate certain risks on the site.
Although Eskom refused to admit to the spying, it was castigated for its “unethical” and possibly illegal conduct in breaching people’s privacy, creating “an environment of total distrust”.
Last week, Eskom CEO Brian Dames admitted to spying on Earthlife Africa, saying it was “unacceptable and not how Eskom does business”.
However, the Sunday Times can reveal that Eskom also obtained information through Swartberg on:
Murray & Roberts, a major contractor at Medupi, which Swartberg reported was “involved in leaking vital informa- tion to GroundWorks” — supposedly to delay the project for financial gain. Swartberg said Murray & Roberts was “also involved in activism by creating and financing Friends of the Earth projects”;
Lephalale mayor Jack Maeko, who had been accused of victimising the local bus industry by seeking to put out a new tender to replace the bus services. The Swartberg reports told how there were framed pictures of the Oppenheimer family in Maeko’s lounge; and
Political groups, including the Democratic Alliance and the Pan Africanist Congress, as well as local community groups.
When it came to spying on green lobby groups such as Earthlife, the reports included
It was a moral dilemma for me, but I needed the money to survive
the agents’ opinions on how well the women looked after themselves, including what colour nail polish they wore, their ethnicity and religious beliefs, whether they spoke English and how educated they were.
A former Swartberg investigator, Pierre van Zyl, told the Sunday Times that Murray & Roberts had also been supplied with “tactical information” gathered from informants in unions, lobby groups and communities. These spies were told to gather tactical information and to “positively influence” opinion on Eskom.
Van Zyl said he was hired in July 2012 to gather information on criminal activity. “But my scope of work quickly changed as I was asked to spy on the Lephalale Taxpayers’ Association, as well as a DA member, Astrid Basson. I was also asked to spy on the PAC,” he said.
“It was a bit of a moral dilem- ma for me, but with a pregnant wife and three children, I needed the money to survive. By the time December came around, I could not take it any more. I approached Lukas, the MD of Swartberg, and told him that we were busy flouting the constitution. He claimed plausible deniability.”
The Bowman Gilfillan report said there were “certain unintended consequences relating to infringements to constitutional rights to privacy”. It said this was partly because there was “inadequate monitoring of the contract by Eskom”.
Van Zyl said top Eskom management knew about the Swartberg activities and were given weekly updates. He said the reports were destroyed after they had been read. Crooks told investigators he saw only three or four of the reports.
Bowman Gilfillan said Eskom hired Swartberg to place “intelligence resources” on site in strategic and sensitive areas and in the outlying areas of Lephalale — acts it deemed “inappropriate” and which caused “undesirable conduct”.
But Swart defended his company’s work at Medupi in correspondence with the Sunday Times. He said once Swartberg had been fired from Medupi, labour unrest flared up again and continued for months.
“We also warned them that there was a threat that unit six at Medupi would be blown up, and only last week a petrol bomb was thrown into the administrative building at the site. The picture speaks for itself.”
Eskom has said nothing about the petrol bomb.
Swart said before Medupi his company had worked on the government’s new multipurpose pipeline because of losses of between R5-million and R8-million owing to criminal activity. “Within six months, we reduced losses from criminal activity to less than R1 000 a month.”