Brig Jaap Burger, a senior SA Police Service (SAPS) officer involved in investigating corruption at Eskom, failed to show up for a scheduled meeting in parliament because he fears appearing publicly will endanger his safety.
Members of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) were disappointed when Burger failed to turn up for the meeting on Tuesday to discuss his role in the police’s handling of allegations of crime, corruption and sabotage at Eskom.
The national police commissioner, Gen Fannie Masemola, previously told Scopa members that Eskom’s former CEO André de Ruyter informed him of a private intelligence investigation into criminal activity at the state-owned power utility and that he delegated Burger to meet De Ruyter to discuss it.
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 a private intelligence investigation commissioned by De Ruyter and certain allegations he made about corruption at the state-owned entity, seemingly informed by this investigation, in an interview on eNCA on February 21.
This included the alleged involvement of senior politicians with criminal networks involved in corruption and sabotage at Eskom, particularly in Mpumalanga.
Masemola, who was at the meeting on Wednesday, told MPs that he had instructed Burger to be at the meeting. “He raised some [security] concerns around him appearing publicly, but I said he should still appear [for the meeting],” Masemola said.
Committee members said they are concerned about the message this will send about policing criminality at Eskom.
ANC MP Sakhumzi Somyo said he worries about the message it will send to “foot soldiers” in the police tasked with investigating and apprehending those involved in crime at Eskom when a senior member of the SAPS is too afraid to speak about these matters in public.
Toxic space
“I am worried that [things] have reached a stage where even senior members of SAPS have become afraid to express themselves about things that matter and the kinds of issues [affecting] Eskom,” Somyo said.
Masemola said it is true that “the Eskom space is very toxic”, however they are not afraid to pursue difficult cases.
They have to approach any information they receive about crime at Eskom with caution because different “groupings and syndicates” are involved that offer false information in trying to “push different angles”.
Law enforcement has “all hands on deck” investigating criminality at Eskom, he said.
The police, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), the Investigating Directorate of the National Prosecuting Authority, and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) are all involved in investigating matters of crime, corruption and sabotage at the utility, he said.
Lekgoa Mothibi, head of the SIU, told Scopa that they have obtained the intelligence reports produced during the private investigation conducted by former police commissioner George Fivaz’s company Forensic & Risk and they are studying it.
After studying the reports, the SIU will make a pronouncement on whether the information will inform further investigations by law enforcement.
The SIU also has to determine whether De Ruyter committed “serious maladministration” in the way the private investigation was commissioned, he said.
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