The standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) wants to call the Eskom board and former CEO André de Ruyter for a second appearance before finalising recommendations on how parliament should proceed in probing allegations of high-level political involvement in crime, sabotage and corruption at the state-owned power utility.
It is also wants Busisiwe Mavuso, former Eskom board member and the CEO for Business Leadership SA (BLSA), which helped fund a private investigation into corruption at Eskom, to appear before the committee.
Scopa has been running a series of engagements with Eskom, law enforcement agencies and the government as it tries to get to the bottom of De Ruyter’s allegations in an interview on eNCA on February 21, which contributed to his early exit from Eskom.
The committee’s questioning has also been aimed at understanding what the government and law enforcement authorities knew about the privately funded intelligence investigation, said to have cost about R50m, that was initiated by De Ruyter.
Some committee members suggested on Wednesday that they make a recommendation to the National Assembly to establish an ad hoc committee to run a full investigation on allegations of corruption, political interference, mismanagement and other financial irregularities at Eskom.
Members agreed that Scopa needed to have further engagements before it could make any final recommendations or present a report on their findings to the National Assembly.
“We do need to draft some recommendations to parliament because this is a very serious situation. Eskom’s success or failure will determine the fate of the country. The problem is we have a ‘he said, she said’ situation ... so it is difficult at this stage to draw firm conclusions and recommendations,” said DA MP Benedicta van Minnen.
Scopa has already met De Ruyter, the Eskom board, the former Eskom acting chair Malegapuru Makgoba, heads of the SA Police Service (SAPS), the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), the Special Investigating Unit and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan.
Committee chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa said that apart from follow-up meetings with De Ruyter and the Eskom board to discuss new information and contradictory statements given in the various engagements, they would also call others such as the auditor-general, Brigadier Jaap Burger of the SAPS and Mavuso.
BLSA admitted providing R18m in funding for the private investigation. This was done while Mavuso was a member of the Eskom board.
The national police commissioner, Gen Fannie Masemola, told Scopa members that De Ruyter informed him of the private intelligence investigation and that he delegated Brig Jaap Burger to meet De Ruyter to discuss this. Masemola said Burger came back and said the information that he got from De Ruyter was already with the Hawks.
Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya denied having knowledge of the private investigation. He told Scopa that they learnt about the private investigation from media reports and a report submitted by De Ruyter’s lawyers one day before his appearance before Scopa in April.
The committee wants Burger to confirm what if any information he shared with the Hawks about the investigation.
Other contradictory statements that Scopa wants clarified include a claim by De Ruyter that he informed the new board appointed in September of the private investigation. Eskom chair Mpho Makwana denied this.
Scopa also wants De Ruyter to answer questions about his refusal to be fully vetted by the State Security Agency (SSA).
Gordhan told the committee that De Ruyter refused to give the SSA access to his personal financial records.
EFF MP Veronica Mente said De Ruyter had a case to answer, and “even if he is outside the country he cannot run away from the law”.
Scopa will meet Sydney Mufamadi, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security adviser, on Friday.
According to De Ruyter, based on information from the private intelligence investigation, he told Gordhan and Mufamadi the names of two top politicians implicated in sabotage and corruption at Eskom.
Gordhan confirmed this, but told Scopa members he would not reveal the names of any individuals who featured in an intelligence investigation as the allegations stemming from the investigation could not be backed up by facts.
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