By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula slammed de Ruyter on Thursday, saying it was unfortunate that he had exposed his right-wing attitude and had opportunistically ventured into the political arena.
Mbalula was responding to comments made by De Ruyter which alleged widespread corruption at Eskom was being masked and protected by the ANC.
He rejected the allegations, calling them irresponsible, baseless and ridiculous.
Mbalula said De Ruyter had failed in his mandate to turn Eskom around and instead had begun venturing into politics. The ANC leader said De Ruyter’s comments were “undemocratic” and if he had allegations of corruption, he should present them to law enforcement agencies.
“We thought de Ruyter was a patriot. We did not look at him because of colour, we looked at him as a South African who can deliver.
“Many political parties have attacked him from the word go, they said he failed at Nampak, but we said as the ANC we want to give him a chance, because we believed in him,” he said.
He said that the ruling party would “not be deterred and side-tracked by utterances of naysayers such as the outgoing Eskom CEO.”
Mondli Gungubele, the Minister in the Presidency, revelead that de Ruyter had failed to get himself vetted by the State Security Agency.
In the interview, de Ruyter said he did not trust the SSA, and said the process would have been used against him at a later stage.
Gungubele said it was “good” that de Ruyter had now left Eskom and said his revelations in the interview were merely accusations without evidence.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana weighed in saying that de Ruyter “was economical with the truth” in his comments about corruption at Eskom in a recent interview.
Answering questions from MPs in Parliament on Thursday on the Budget, Godogwana said:The [former] CEO of Eskom was economical with the truth because when he raised the issue of corruption at Eskom, particularly in Mpumalanga, an investigation was done, and indeed some syndicates were operating, which also included police. The government set up a task team and moved into Megawatt Park and arrested a number of people. So, I find it difficult to accept his statement [that nothing was done].
Godongwana also briefed MPs on the debt solution for Eskom. The bailout will see the Treasury take over R254 billion in debt repayments and interest costs for the next three years and take over R70 billion of loan debt. The bailout will take the form of an interest-free loan with conditions attached.
“We have appointed an independent team to assess Eskom to give us a better understanding and to say exactly what conditions to attach to the loan. We will get to the bottom of the issues,” he said.
The independent consortium of consultants will be led by Vgbe Energy and includes several global engineering consulting firms. Vgbe has previously worked with Eskom.
The Central Energy Fund (CEF) has also lashed out at de Ruyter for speculating that Russia could be involved in its plans to take over soon-to-be-decommissioned plants and turn them into gas power stations.
The CEF said it was “unfortunate” that it was put in a position where it had to respond to De Ruyter’s allegations.
“CEF considers it reckless for Mr De Ruyter to go on national television and make wild allegations about the request for collaboration with Eskom on the coal-fired power stations that Eskom intends to decommission,” it said in a statement on Thursday.
De Ruyter resigned as Eskom chief executive in December. He was expected to vacate office at the end of March, but the Eskom board reached agreement with de Ruyter on Wednesday, to leave the power utility immediately.