More than 10% of Eskom employees failed to declare conflicts of interest – SIU tells Parliament

Previous reports on corruption and State Capture in Eskom have largely focused on senior leadership, but on Wednesday, 12 March 2025, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) revealed the extent to which alleged corruption and maladministration also run deep into the utility’s rank-and-file employees.

According to the SIU, 5,464 Eskom employees failed to declare conflicts of interest, as per company policy, and 334 employees had direct business interests in Eskom suppliers and contractors, and R180-million in illicit payments were traced from fraudulent vendors directly to Eskom employees.

“The conflict of interest space was really where this corruption really brewed,” said SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi.

“There would be interests in areas where companies rendered services, employees would be interested and so on, and that’s really the basis of it. “We found corruption, and maladministration and malpractice stuck in, and if you look at the areas of operation of Eskom, none of them was spared. 

“But really, the big ticket item was coal supply,” Mothibi emphasised.  

Of coal supply, he said: “That area, as you could see, was also really plagued by all these irregularities, and so on. The coal supply, the quality of the coal; our evidence shows that it was deliberate [poor] in many instances. The quality of the coal itself, but, in some instances, there was deliberate mixture of coal with rock and all of that.”

The advocate said the SIU was pleased that management had “come in and put in the measures to really correct that”.

The unit was briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy on its investigations relating to Eskom.

“Build projects, none of them in the pictures we showed was spared. That’s really where the engine of Eskom is, where it generates,” said Mothibi. “It is very clear that those stations were affected, such that Eskom was disabled.

“We have seen it over the years, but we are happy that the trend seems to be changing. We are not out of the woods yet.”  

Viven Govender, Forensic Investigation Specialist at the SIU and the lead investigator at Eskom, explained that the SIU investigation spanned the period 1 January 2003 to 2 December 2022, although their mandate extends to periods before and after if relevant to the investigation. 

Govender told the committee that the 5,464 employees were referred to Eskom for disciplinary action and that they made 194 disciplinary referrals to Eskom as well as 14 referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

“In respect of the 5,464 non-disclosure or non-completion of the declaration of interest forms, we only have one open matter. This matter will be finalised by the end of this month.”

Eskom has policies to prevent conflicts of interest, requiring employees above a certain level to declare any financial ties to businesses linked to the company. Employees are also banned from having personal stakes in Eskom contracts, whether as suppliers, advisers or business owners, including indirect connections through third parties.

Govender went on to explain: “It is alleged that Eskom’s internal tender process is being manipulated.”

He was speaking about procurement irregularities related to the contracting or procurement of goods and services valued at less than R1-million.

The SIU identified three groupings of companies that would defraud Eskom by using the request for quotation (RFQ) processes for services and products. 

“In group one, we found 23 vendors who received purchase orders (POs) to the value of R1.8-billion across the 15 power stations. In group two, we found 31 vendors who received POs to the value of R1.7-billion, also across all 15 power stations. In group three, we found 12 vendors and they received POs to the value of R700-million also across all 15 power stations,” said Govender. 

To date, 35 Eskom employees have been identified or have received more than R180-million from these vendors.

At least 116 referrals have been made to the NPA and the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU), while 109 referrals have been made to the South African Revenue Service.

Govender went on to highlight another shocking finding related to the POs – many were created after hours, suggesting a deliberate attempt to evade oversight. This was most pronounced at Kusile Power Station.  

“Without sounding alarmist, I must say that when we presented this thing, we were also taken aback, but I can confirm now that we’ve identified the people responsible for issuing these purchase orders. In some instances, it was legitimate and, in most instances, we found that there was a flow of money that gave rise to these purchase orders. 

(Source: SIU)