Van Ruyter informed Gordhan about two ministers implicated in Eskom wrongdoing

Former Eskom CEO André De Ruyter told Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan of two cabinet members’ alleged participation in a crime that has devastated the company.

According to two people involved with a private investigation into the Mpumalanga coal cartels, this is according to the Sunday publication Rapport.

In an interview with Annika Larsen on E-My tv’s Guest Tonight, De Ruyter stated he warned an unidentified minister that a high-level ANC official was engaged in the cartel’s actions.

“The minister looked at a senior official and said, ‘I guess that it was inevitable that it would come out anyway’, which suggests that this wasn’t news,” De Ruyter said.

The criminal gangs are notorious for stealing high-quality coal from Eskom and replacing it with low-quality coal, coal byproducts, and pebbles that cause damage to the utility’s power plants.

Owing to alleged links between Mpumalanga police and coal cartels, expert police teams from other provinces were called in to help clamp down on the criminality.

While Eskom and these units have had some success in reducing crime, a proposal is also in the works to recruit a former police general who was expelled during the state capture period to conduct a high-level Saps probe into the cartels.

While De Ruyter only identified one high-level politician, Rapport stated that two cabinet members were under investigation in the private inquiry, which Eskom had launched owing of a lack of assistance from law enforcement.

Rapport questioned Gordhan about the idea that he was the minister to whom De Ruyter confided.

The minister stated that he despises all types of corruption and that the Eskom board must examine De Ruyter’s claims.

He did neither confirm or deny that De Ruyter had brought up the claims with him.

Until recently, Gordhan has generally backed De Ruyter in the public realm.

Gordhan hailed De Ruyter for his anti-corruption efforts and thanked him for his “sacrifice and resilience” upon his departure in December 2022.

He also defended De Ruyter and his executive team against the obviously false allegation of treason levelled by Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, but only after being specifically challenged about it during a media conference.

The public enterprises minister has suddenly altered his tune since the interview containing bombshell claims against the ANC aired.

On Wednesday, Gordhan chastised De Ruyter for “interfering” in politics rather than focusing on the end of load-shedding.

Gordan stated that the CEO of Eskom should not engage in open political arguments or pronouncements.

“Where they have political views, that is their private business, and they are welcome to express those views privately,” he said.

Gordhan also refuted De Ruyter’s claim that nothing was being done to combat Eskom-related crimes.

“Lots of people have been reported to the law enforcement authorities for alleged involvement in acts of corruption or fraud,” the minister said.

After De Ruyter’s early dismissal, Gordhan told Bloomberg that De Ruyter had basically dubbed everyone in government “idiots,” which fueled the CEO’s fury.

“He did not pay the attention to Eskom’s generation that he should have, and instead swanned around the world looking at renewables,” Gordhan said.

The minister stated that De Ruyter did not prioritise effectively since he failed to “sweat Eskom’s assets as he should have”.

“The main focus by government will now be to do just that,” Gordhan declared.