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Much of De Ruyter's corruption claims not new and response to them is political posturing

Much of De Ruyter's corruption claims not new and response to them is political posturing
Marianne Merten
By Marianne Merten
2 Mar 2023
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André de Ruyter has left as Eskom CEO, but remains under pressure to tell police about the ‘feeding trough’ that is Eskom cartels and politicians, according to his ‘My Guest Tonight’ e.tv interview. It seems the political commentary rather than the corruption sparked the official fuss.

Charges have been laid and prosecutions are under way, alongside lifestyle audits and disciplinary proceedings for failing to declare conflicts of interest, if briefings to parliamentary committees are anything to go by. Much of what ex-Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said is in the public domain, and more. Here’s a (very) brief overview of just the past handful of months. 

On Tutuka, one of the six worst performing power plants, at between 15% to 17% electricity availability factor (EAF) 


That the station manager has to wear a bulletproof vest and needs armed guards emerged on 24 January before Parliament’s watchdog on public spending, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa). 

De Ruyter also told MPs how rocks and metal get added to the coal so there are breakages, followed by a maintenance call-out. 

“When we wanted to insist on controls [like] barcoding, the resistance is tough,” De Ruyter told MPs on 24 January. “The criminality is quite well organised and well embedded.” 

The Tutuka troubles are also in his replying papers to the United Democratic Movement-led court challenge against rotational power cuts. 

“Tutuka’s underperformance, of course, has various causes. But intolerable levels of criminality plaguing Tutuka are undoubtedly a significant contributor to its unacceptably low EAF. 

“Eskom is spending approximately R3.2-billion per annum on private security due to the sustained sabotage and criminality it and its personnel have experienced.” 

That number should also be in various Eskom annual reports and audited finances, which are before the parliamentary public accounts committee MPs. 

On procurement diddles 


The case of the Eskom procurement section recommending awarding a R430-million tender to the Germiston resident with a default judgment for missing bond repayments and a repossessed car, was first raised before Scopa. The tender was stopped. 

On criminal cases 


A total of 131 criminal Eskom-related cases are with the SA Police Service (SAPS), while the Hawks had 83 cases across six provinces, with 18 in court, it emerged at the 19 October 2022 meeting of Scopa. 

Meanwhile, Eskom’s own internal investigations stood at 270 active cases on 1 July 2022, with 239 cases under investigation both internally and externally, according to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group transcript. 

On the day of this committee meeting, Eskom released a statement that the Hawks had arrested a Tutuka Power Station employee on 17 October for removing 10 drums of hydraulic oil valued at more than R800,000 from storage facilities. 

Meanwhile, on 10 November a case of sabotage was opened at the Ermelo Police Station (CAS 107/11/2022), according to an Eskom statement, after a maintenance company worker at Camden Unit 4 removed an oil drain plug from the bearing. The oil drained, the bearing was damaged and the unit ultimately tripped. 

On 24 January, De Ruyter told MPs how, also at Camden, when Eskom security stopped a coal truck with poor quality coal, “the truck driver and his so-called manager first of all offered ... a R50,000 bribe, which was declined”. After arrest and a confession, it appears that first the Ermelo Magistrates’ Court prosecutor refused to deal with the matter, and then the “Belfast prosecutor released the individual”. 



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In late November 2022, another dodgy coal delivery at another power station, Matla, led to arrests and charges — CAS 476/11/2022, according to the Eskom statement — and the impounding of cargo and a truck. 

In July 2022, Eskom welcomed the arrest of former ABB group employees Muhammed Mooidheen and Vernon Pillay and their spouses, in relation to corruption involving contracts worth R2.2-billion. 

“ABB in turn irregularly appointed Impulse International (Pty) Ltd (Impulse) as a sub-contractor on a R549.6-million portion of the work,” Eskom said in a statement at the time. 

Meanwhile, on trial since 2019 are former Eskom executive Abram Masango and ex-Eskom manager France Hlakudi, alongside others, in connection with corruption related to an air-cooled condenser tender awarded at Kusile Power Station.  

Two cases of sabotage were opened with the SAPS in May 2022 after a cable that was meant to bring Tutuka Unit 5 online was cut, while in another incident, the power station’s air pressure dropped. 

“This is the fifth incident of sabotage since March 2021, and all of these have been reported to the police,” said an Eskom statement on 19 May 2022. “Eskom has employed measures to improve security at all its power stations in general and Tutuka Power Station in particular, where additional security personnel and smart technology have been introduced.” 

(Note: smart technology includes cameras, but also drones that monitor power station perimeters, as MPs were told last year.) 

The Hawks, in various statements, have also announced arrests, from the 11 people at Emalahleni stealing aluminium from the Eskom power line in March 2022, to the July 2022 arrest of four people, including a Bredasdorp ex-Eskom Customer Network Centre employee and their former police officer husband, for stealing Eskom copper cables worth R306,065. 

On design faults


A nightmare at Kusile and Medupi; the new build power stations that are about a decade overdue and tens of billions over budget.  

In September 2015, the procurement ANC investment arm Chancellor House’s diddling emerged when Hitachi paid $19-million “to settle” charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for arrangements that “gave the front company and the ANC the ability to share in the profits from any power station contracts that Hitachi secured”, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Eskom’s rolling blackouts — 26 years of ANC meddling, manipulation and vested interests”  

In October 2022, a flue at Kusile collapsed because, among other issues, boiler exhaust gas emissions were too hot. 

That came up before Scopa in January 2023. “The design defects are well understood and they are being addressed comprehensively. It took us 2.5 years and cost R165-million per unit ... Still trying to recover that from the contractor,” De Ruyter told MPs. 

The flue design fault and the failure to manage ash deposits were “two issues of corruption and also skills that were not what they should have been”. 

These issues have taken out more than 2,000MW and will take eight to 12 months to fix. 

And on getting money back


ABB, a key contractor at Kusile, paid back R1.775-billion on 27 December 2021, the public enterprises committee was told on 7 February 2023 by Eskom board chairperson Mpho Makwana, with efforts also to recoup R600-million that Trillian still owed, according to transcripts of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group. 

Trillian was ordered by the courts in 2019 to repay Eskom R600-million, but that’s still a work in progress.  

A claim for R359-million was submitted to the Gupta-linked Tegeta coal supply company, now under business rescue. Court action over the full amount of over R700-million remains under way, Scopa was told. 

Civil action totalling R3.8-billion is under way against seven ex-Eskom directors and executives, including ex-CEO Brian Molefe, ex-CFO Anoj Singh and generations executive Matshela Koko. Damages are sought against ex-board members including Mark Vivian Pamensky and ex-minister Mosebenzi Zwane, according to an Eskom statement. 

The R30-million the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund unlawfully paid to its CEO Brian Molefe was finally recovered after four years in court in September 2022, the power utility said in a statement. DM

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