Page 10 - AfrElec Week 09 2021

AfrElec ESKOM AfrElec

Eskom board supports de Ruyter

in procurement scandal

SOUTH AFRICA THE Eskom board of directors has reiterated its Tshitangano wrote to Public Enterprises
support for CEO Andre de Ruyter and his man- Director-General Kgathatso Tlhakudi, and cop-
agement team after the suspension of chief pro- ied to all Scopa members, the Auditor-General,
curement officer Solly Tshitangano. the State Capture Commission and the National
“The board of Eskom therefore wishes to Treasury to make his complaints.
affirm its support and confidence in the execu- Scopa has now twice suspended the hearing,
tive management of the company in instilling a as its members want to interrogate Tshitangano
high performance culture, including the appli- in order to investigate accusations of nepotism
cation of appropriate consequence management and corruption overseen by de Ruyter.
in accordance with Eskom’s internal disciplinary “The allegations are very serious, and so the
processes. The board has complete faith in the CEO will have to be afforded an opportunity to
company’s internal processes and governance address us and respond to the allegations that
procedures to deliver a fair process and outcome have been made against him. So, we will put the
on the matter of the suspended chief procure- issues that have been raised to him. So, I think
ment officer,” Eskom’s board said in a statement. that the committee’s investigative process must
The board also said it had complete confi- ensue on this matter given the importance of
dence in de Ruyter’s ability to restore the utility Eskom. It is very, very urgent,” Scopa chairperson
to operational stability and a sustainable finan- Mkhuleko Hlengwa said.
cial position. The Eskom board stressed in its statement
Eskom suspended Solly Tshitangano pending that there had been unfounded allegations in the
a disciplinary hearing for his failure to meet per- media of misconduct in Eskom which was hin-
formance targets. dering its operations.
Eskom’s board issued its statement just as the Allegations made in the press include a claim
South Parliament’s Standing Committee on Pub- that de Ruyter protected staff implicated in pro-
lic Accounts (Scopa) was set to hold a hearing on ject management contracts at Kusile power sta-
March 30 to review Eskom’s annual report. tion whose value escalated from ZAR100m in
The sitting was suspended because the com- 2007 to ZAR12bn ($6.7-801mn).
mittee had received a letter from Tshitangano There is also the bizarre story of the pur-
accusing Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter of purg- chase of one wooden mop for ZAR238,000
ing black suppliers. ($15,000).™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 09 04•March•2021