AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Dear Minister Ramokgopa, here is a list of corruption cases impacting on Eskom
An Eskom Holdings Ltd's sign is seen at the entrance to the company's Kendal power station in Delmas, South Africa. (Photo: Nadine Hutton / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
New minister of electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, said this week that Eskom's challenges were technical problems which had nothing to do with ‘so-called corruption’. Well that is simply not so, with reports of corruption frequently uncovered by the media, and some cases with law enforcement agencies and the courts. The South African Police Service is currently investigating 131 Eskom-related cases, while the Hawks have 83 cases across six provinces, with 18 in court.
The Eskom cases before courts include:
- Ex-Eskom executive France Hlakudi is one of several people accused of fraud, corruption and money laundering in connection with an allegedly fraudulent R745-million contract involving the Kusile Power Station.
- In March 2022, the Asset Forfeiture Unit obtained a freezing order valued at R2.4-billion related to the Optimum Coal Mine and its assets, bought with the proceeds of crime by the Gupta-owned Tegeta company.
- In October 2022, former Eskom acting CEO Matshela Koko, his wife and two stepdaughters were among eight people arrested on corruption charges relating to a multimillion-rand irregular contract for building the Kusile Power Station. The charges stem from a 2015 contract awarded to the Swiss conglomerate Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) to install control and instrumentation systems at the power station.
- In November 2022, two security guards were arrested in connection with the theft of diesel worth R145,930 from an Eskom plant. The guards were employed by a security company contracted by Eskom and had been guarding the Port Rex gas turbine station in East London.
- Also in November 2022, Eskom reported multiple arrests linked to sabotage, coal theft and coal fraud at Camden Power Station.
- Around 30 November 2022, a truck driver and his supervisor from a transport company subcontracted to haul coal to Eskom were arrested at the Matla Power Station. The arrests took place after the truck driver was found to be in possession of subgrade coal destined for the facility.
- Angelo Cysman, a 40-year-old plant operator at the Ankerlig Power Station in Atlantis, is accused of stealing diesel worth R500,000. He was released on R50,000 bail by the Atlantis Magistrates’ Court in December last year. It is alleged he allowed a vehicle to collect stolen diesel from the site, declared the diesel tanker was empty and all the fuel offloaded, and then allowed the vehicle to leave with the stolen load. DM
Read more about the cartels operating in Eskom
Read Ramokgopa’s comments – that the troubles at Eskom had nothing to do with corruption in Daily Maverick.
Read: Much of De Ruyter’s corruption claims not new and response to them is political posturing, by Marianne Merten.
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Hi Vincent. Great article. Pity the minister wont read it? Have you sent it to his office? Keep up the good work David
The sole purpose of the new minister is to create and perpetuate the illusion that De Ruyter was the only problem at Eskom, and that the ANC will fix everything before election time. Shortly thereafter, the grid will collapse again.
Spot on!!!
I agree, together with half the country!!
Bravo to the brave work you are doing. I visited your beautiful country for the first time last month. I would like to see all South Africans thrive and prosper. Keep up the good work and I’ll continue to root for your success. Cheers from Chicago! -RW
Well that settles that – a new Minister towing the party-line like all the rest.
Very sad really!
He did say that in relation to Kusile which may be true, excluding Chancellor House and the boilers. He did blame corruption at Tutuka.
Following up on corruption may (will?) expose inconvenient truths. Perpetrators likely to be ANC cadres. “The Emperors new clothes”.
Obvious the Minister is there for PR bulldust,De Ruyter forced their hand
This muppet arrives at Kusile, looks around and pronounces he can’t see any corruption. I think I’ll kill myself laughing…
It is terrible to say that, but what do we expect from an ANC member/minister?
Correct, thanks to DM for their super reporting. Just reading about all the lame excuses that the cANCer comes up with, one had to wonder if they have a “Code of Ethics” Honesty, Integrity, Transparency… are to name a few that are seriously lacking if at all, non existant…..
It’s time to get the people out of their “cushy seats” They are not there for our beloved country, or it’s citizens…
He has been extremely fast at showing his hand which makes one doubt his glib pronouncements.
The objectives are to throw dust in our eyes using a disinformation campaign and to say anything disparaging about De Ruyter they can dream up and to pretend they are fixing the problem fast. Meanwhile the power stations are probably being maxed out to keep the ANC in favour. As usual no care for the country its’ infrastructure or hope for a future.
His performance criteria should be: 1. Closure of the backdoor coal operations defrauding Eskom. Arrest and convictions of the ANC cadres and the complicit gangs supporting this looting. DD must be in Orange. 2. Elimination of the sabotage by the cadres and the Unions (remember the sudden Stage 6 during the strike!!). Charging and conviction of the instigators and the perpetuators with treason! 3. Funding of the required maintenance and like extension secured. No Cadres to be involved. 4. New capacity motivated and initiated. NB base load -coal & nuclear based-to be included as well as “green” IPPs. Transparent and lowest cost. I hear the howl of the greenies here, but we must face reality. Solar is not cheap when you look at power required at 19h00-21h00. We must develop a low cost strategy for RSA, not Europe!
Just another ANC comrade, what do you expect from our new Bright Spark minister, straight out liar that he is.
A couple of weeks in the job and already it’s deny, deny, deny… shame on you!
Unfortunately Abe Lincoln’s observation that you can fool some of the people all of the time still holds true for the ANC faithful.
New minister of No Power (Dept. of Electric and Many Holes) – how can you rule or determine that there is no Eskom corruption, on what basis? Because there are technical problems (of course there are, I agree) there cannot be corruption as well? Only one problem at a time?
After 3 weeks into the job, he already knows more than the last chap who had 3 years to see. The tactic is obvious. Blame the hardware and not management! i.e. the ANC and not a whiff of corruption! Is it not odd that, given the Estina dairy scandal, not even one squeak of an inquiry into the shenanigans in Mpumalanga.? Was this the price of Mabusa’s swing to Cyril? Who is/was the Cabinet Member De Ruyter was referring too? Our ex-deputy President fits the profile .Just ask Eskom ,of its coal powered fleet. What is the percentage breakdown of coal deliveries to the stations? In the categories A) Trucking by road B) Mine- to-stations conveyors C) Rail Transnet/ Others. Then we will see why and what infrastructure fails. The stink will be too big to hide.
November to February debilitating blackouts, hello and election on the horizon and load-shedding improving and will disappear closer to voting day. Those months of level 6 purposely manipulated to pave the way for vast improvement, people only too happy to be rid of darkness and who will be credited for this, the polls will show when the ANC is elected back to power. No discounting the ANC’s cunning ways.
Hey man! The minister is brilliant. After all, he came up with the statement “consistent energy availability will end load shedding”. That is like saying, if you keep on eating, you won’t get hungry. To be honest, I think there was a strategy to put De Ruyter in charge because the ANC knew he would fail to fix the mess and eventually leave. And then they will have an excuse (scapegoat) for another 30 years. They will be beating this drum for many years to come.
A team of efficient high quality ( infrared for night stealing ) drones monitoring each facility from coal supply to generation facility ( DM ? ) would yield the first ( only first ! ) batch of thieves – for the SAPS cadres ( as per person caught for sabotage ) to release in the morning .
Please remember that Ramokgopa is not speaking to the DM readers, but to the vast number of voters out there, who might believe him, as he will be backed up by the local ANC representatives and most likely do not even read newspapers.
The impact on Eskom of the billions owed to it by corrupt local government, should be added to the toll. Corruption is endemic in the ANC, so no surprises really.
In his defence, we must remember if newly-minted minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa admits to “so-called” corruption he will have to do something about it. Rather him than me to take on those well-managed (OK, by fear), highly effective (OK, by corruption and murder) cartels. Anyway, he is probably (like any ambitious employee with an eye to 2024) taking his cues from his boss.