Johannesburg – Afriforum has come to the defence of Eskom’s chief executive André de Ruyter, saying his quick removal after an explosive television interview, was proof that he was ousted for speaking out about corruption at the power utility.
De Ruyter was due to resign as Eskom CEO at the end of March, but his exit was brought forward after he made explosive revelations in an e.tv interview this week.
The Eskom board said they learnt of the claims for the first time on Tuesday when the interview aired, saying de Ruyter had never reported anything to the board.
Manager of local government affairs at AfriForum, Morné Mostert, said when it comes to tariff increases, the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) must take the allegations of corruption made by de Ruyter into account.
Mostert said: “President Cyril Ramaphosa specifically mentioned corruption at Eskom in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), as well as on various other occasions, saying that 43 arrests had already been made, besides all the credible revelations already made in the media.
“The effect being this dire load shedding that the country is now facing. Why are these corrupt operations not considered when Nersa grants tariff increases of almost 20%? A question that needs to be answered.”
Dr Eugene Brink, strategic adviser for community affairs at AfriForum, also weighed in and said that De Ruyter had intimate knowledge of the power supplier.
Therefore, his allegations about high-ranking ANC officials’ involvement in Eskom’s corruption had to be taken seriously.
Brink said: “These are not the first allegations he has made about endemic corruption, and it is not just a so-called state capture problem.”
Furthermore, Brink called for these allegations and those of other whistle-blowers to be investigated as this was meant to have been done earlier, but instead, it seems easier to just silence them.
“Eskom’s board failed the country and their organisation by terminating De Ruyter’s employment prematurely when they could have simply taken his and other role players’ allegations seriously and thus tried to save Eskom.
“This makes a mockery of Ramaphosa’s promises during the State of the Nation Address to do justice at Eskom and eradicate corruption,” Brink added.
