Eskom will struggle to achieve the improvement it is hoping for in the performance of its power stations by the end of its financial year in March. But the efforts of its management to fight crime and corruption in its supply chains are starting to deliver results.
Eskom has begun to make progress in the “battle against crime”, said CEO André de Ruyter, who was accused in 2022 by mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe of acting too much like a policeman.
De Ruyter has often spoken out about high levels of corruption in Eskom’s coal supply chain, especially in Mpumalanga, and how this is contributing to the unreliability of electricity supply from coal-fired power stations.
He told journalists on Monday that, aided by intelligence provided by Eskom, the SA Police Service (SAPS) has so far been able to make 48 arrests of people thought to be “actively involved in criminal activity throughout Eskom”.
“I am pleased that we are now seeing some significant progress in our battle against crime and corruption and that we are no longer as vulnerable as we had previously been.”
However, he said, so far the arrests have been of “the foot soldiers” of the criminal networks behind the crime and corruption that stretches deep within Eskom. This is not going to stop the corruption, De Ruyter said. The “upper echelons” need to be targeted.
“I hope the intelligence we are sharing with [the authorities] will help in making higher-level arrests.”
Eskom is also continuing to “go after” its own employees who are suspected of involvement in “untoward” activity. “Some employees resign in the face of disciplinary action” which makes these cases difficult to pursue.
De Ruyter said Eskom has had a number of successes in its collaboration with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to recover some of the losses due to corruption. On Monday, the SIU announced that its Pretoria Asset Forfeiture Unit secured another preservation order in relation to corruption at Kusile power station.
The investigation revealed how an Eskom vendor, Tamukelo Business Enterprises, which provided water trucking services to the Kusile project site from June 2009 to November 2020, made various payments to the benefit of current and former Eskom officials.
“The preliminary investigations by the SIU revealed that Eskom, in respect of this case, lost almost R400m from the unlawful tender which was granted to the vendor,” the SIU said in a statement.
It was found that former Eskom employee Duduzile Babalwa Moyo received payments or benefits of more than R24.5m, which were paid from Tamukelo.
Assets under preservation include several vehicles and properties in Mbombela. The next step will be to apply for a forfeiture order and once granted the properties will be sold at a public auction and the proceeds returned to Eskom, the SIU said.
De Ruyter said that civil prosecutions are progressing well, but the utility will “appreciate some greater urgency from the criminal side”.
In a further step to act against unscrupulous contractors Eskom has issued letters to 15 companies or directors for transgressing Eskom contract pacts, said De Ruyter. There are 230 of these cases that Eskom’s supplier review committee needs to work through.
The fight against load-shedding appears to be progressing at a slower pace. Eskom is hoping to reduce load-shedding to stage 4 by Thursday and to stage 5 by Friday by bringing at least six units back to service over the next few days.
However, during the press conference on Monday, Eskom’s acting head of generation, Thomas Conradie, said that with the power output performance of the fleet now at about half of installed capacity (53%), achieving an energy availability factor of 60% by end-March is not possible.
Increasing the energy availability factor of the generating fleet — a measure of the amount of energy being generated against the total installed generation capacity — to 60% by the end of March 2023 is one of the key elements of the national emergency response to load-shedding. Delays may affect the time frame of reducing it substantially over the next 18 to 24 months.
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