Public Enterprise Minister Pravin Gordhan denied claims that he has not seen any privately funded intelligence report into corruption at Eskom. The minister went on to deny claims made by former Eskom CEO Andre Ruyter that he had urged him to initiate a private intelligence gathering operation.
Gordhan claims that De Ruyter created the operation on his own and was informed about it months later in passing.
The minister said, “As far as the De Ruyter project is concerned, he did not discuss that with me at any length, merely in passing. He said ‘I am doing this because the law enforcement guys are not coming to the party.’ He said ‘I am not doing it with Eskom money, I am raising the money privately and I have told the chair about it.’ What he told the chair, I don’t know.
“Today we discover that the project started in January 2022. The interaction I am talking about happened in June 2022, six months later. He was operating on his own free will on this project. At the same time, it seemed he was writing a book as well, rather than focusing on his job of keeping the power stations going and providing South Africans with electricity. For six months I did not know anything about this project nor what he was up to,” said Gordhan.
Gordhan appeared before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that’s investigating the Eskom corruption allegations made by De Ruyter in the wake of his departure. He also said he will not tarnish anyone’s name by naming them public without any evidence for their alleged involvement in corruption and questioned the credibility of former police commissioner George Fivaz’s investigation.
“This is not a mission to shoot the messenger. De Ruyter was in charge of an institution.
“This is not about shooting the messenger. This is not about this poor guy who is being attacked. If you are in charge, the buck stops with you,” said Gordhan.
The public enterprise minister said that Malegapuru Makgoba, former Eskom board chairperson presented misleading information about the controversial Eskom intelligence gathering to the Scopa last week.
“That is information about a specific incident that took place. It’s not about go around and do the job of the SA intelligence services.”