Former chief executive officer of power utility, Eskom Andre de Ruyter recently published his new book, Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom where he details the corruption and fraud at Eskom.
In his memoir, Ruyter emphasizes that “negligence and carelessness had become cemented into the organisation”. He gives a behind the scene at how corruption ruined the power utility to the point of almost no return.
During former South African president Jacob Zuma’s state capture, Eskom became an attractive target due to its huge procurement bill.
According to MyBroadband report, Eskom has a procurement bill north of R140 billion per annum and capital expenditure budget exceeding R35 billion.
“I was struck by the sheer sense of normality that had been created as if these egregious acts were entirely within the normal course of Eskom’s business,” De Ruyter said.
“Board members displayed neither outrage nor courage. They didn’t question these decisions and were only too happy to acquiesce in criminal acts.”
De Ruyter reveals that Eskom was just stopped from paying a middleman R238 000 for a cleaning mop. He also revealed that one middleman bought kneepads for R150 and sold them to Eskom for R80 000. While another bought a Kneepad for R4 025 and sold it to Eskom for R934 950.
Eskom paid R26 for a single-ply roll of toilet paper which cost R5 and the power utility paid R51 for a black refuge bag which it’s normal price is R2.99.
“It soon became clear to me that our chief procurement officer, Solly Tshitangano, was completely out of his depth,” De Ruyter said.
“On his watch, less than 35% of items were purchased according to contract. The rest was free text on the vendor software system SAP where you could type in any amount you wanted.”
“By bypassing Solly, I would eventually manage to push the figure of 35% up to 95%.”
De Ruyter continues to share that the going rate for bribes and falsify the delivery of one truckload of good-quality coal at Kusile power station is R200 000.
In the book, he says a senior officer at the Hawks, the police’s priority crime investigation unit, alerted him that he was blocked in all his attempts to combat corruption at Eskom.
According to The Citizen, “Senior police officers, at least one prosecutor and a senior magistrate have also been bribed by the gangs. Eskom had 13 CEOs and acting CEOs in 13 years. Twenty-eight candidates, most of them black, rejected head-hunters’ offers to become CEO of Eskom.”
