Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati says allegations of cartels within Eskom hollowing out the power utility are false and the board has found no evidence of its existence.
This is contrary to allegations by former group CEO André de Ruyter, who left the power utility in a huff early last year.
Nyati, who was appointed as Eskom’s board chairperson in October 2023 as part of a governance overhaul of the entity after De Ruyter’s abrupt exit, says the board only has evidence of individuals engaging in corrupt practices within Eskom.
He was speaking at a Centre for Development Enterprise function on the future of SOEs, including Eskom, on Tuesday.
“We knew from the get-go that that approach of painting everyone with the same brush was wrong,” Nyati said on Tuesday, adding that the board had been able to unearth evidence of corruption by some Eskom personnel “through the use of AI and other technologies”.
This was linked to the utility’s SAP system and data from other sources.
He said Eskom had worked with other external organisations like the SIU [Special Investigating Unit] and the police in its investigations. “We have gathered so much information, [but] we don’t have the evidence to say that they are mafias [in the utility],” Nyati said.
De Ruyter left the utility in February 2023 after publicly accusing the ANC of being part of the corruption within Eskom. The party has since denied the allegations.
However, an independent investigation into corruption at the entity, which was funded by the private sector, identified four crime cartels, all with suspected highly placed political connections, operating in Mpumalanga.
De Ruyter said then in a television interview he believed as much as R1bn was stolen from Eskom monthly. He also spoke of his suspicions that “a high-level politician” was involved in some of the corruption taking place at Eskom and that he had shared his suspicions with a minister.
Nyati highlighted the importance of having a board with diverse expertise — including engineers, chartered accountants and labour relations specialists — to address Eskom’s challenges.
“This was a big shift by governance … we have people that are specialists in culture, in organisational culture. We have people that are specialists in labour relations and labour unions,” he said.
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