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De Ruyter only reported Eskom graft a day before appearing in Parliament: Lebeya

todayMay 9, 2023 50

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Former Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter.

Hawks boss, Godfrey Lebeya, says Andre de Ruyter, only reported Eskom corruption allegations for the first time to law enforcement officials a day before he appeared in Parliament last month.

Lebeya is among the high-ranking officials from law enforcement agencies giving their account on the former Eskom CEO’s damning assertions.

De Ruyter left Members of Parliament defeated on the 26 of April when he refused to divulge the information on the corruption claims he made in a TV interview.

In that interview, the former CEO claimed that a senior government official instructed him to turn a blind eye to some of the corrupt activities at the utility.

“I expressed to a senior government minister about attempts to water down governance around the 8.5 billion US dollars and the response was essentially, you have to be pragmatic. In order to pursue the greater good you have to allow people to eat a bit, ” said de Ruyter in the controversial interview.

De Ruyter also claimed that he was aware of four organised crime cartels operating at the embattled power utility in Mpumalanga.

He gave the impression that he had previously reported the claims to the National Police Commissioner, General, Fannie Masemola.

However, the Commissioner today told parliament that the former CEO did not go into detail when he informed him about the corruption at the parastatal, including the alleged cartels.

“It was more to say there are general problems of procurement, management at Eskom. He also indicated that these matters are not new and have been reported to the Hawks, ” said Masemola.

Hawks boss, Godfrey Lebeya, says there are currently only three known investigations linked to de Ruyter.

He says the first one is the alleged poisoning case in which de Ruyter is a complainant.

The second one is over de Ruyter’s alleged failure to lodge a section 34 report as required by PRECCA in which the former Eskom boss is cited as a suspect by the leader of Build One South Africa, Mmusi Maimane.

The third case is on the report de Ruyter submitted a day before he appeared before SCOPA on April 25.

“It is important to note that this is the first section 34 report that was reported on the central reporting office on behalf of Mr de Ruyter in relation to Eskom corruption allegations,” said Lebeya.

The hearing continues tomorrow with the new Eskom board facing the third degree.

The Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, will appear before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) next week Wednesday.

Written by: Lindiwe Mpanza

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