By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) says it plans to call former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter to appear before the committee again, along with several other people, as it continues its probe into corruption allegations at the company.
De Ruyter, who at his last appearance at Scopa refused to answer all the questions and would not name the two “senior politicians” he claimed were implicated in corruption, will face another harsh inquisition by the committee. MPs are outraged that De Ruyter refused to be fully vetted by the State Security Agency but was the CEO of an entity that is a national key point.
This time he may be subpoenaed, which will compel him to answer fully or face a charge of contempt of Parliament.
Committee chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said this would be decided later once the committee had its final list of people it wanted to call. The complete list will be made final on Friday.
“So far, in addition to De Ruyter, the committee has suggested calling the Eskom board for a second time, the Auditor-General, the director-general in the Presidency Phindile Baleni, Business Leadership CEO Busi Mavuso – whose organisation funded the intelligence reports commissioned by De Ruyter – and General Jap Burger of the SAPS.”
Hlengwa said that “a protracted engagement” was needed with Burger, who had turned out to be a central player in the intelligence collection events. Burger had been designated by police National Commissioner Fannie Masemola as De Ruyter’s contact person in the police with whom he could share the intelligence gathered.
De Ruyter has been hiding since his allegations of widespread corruption at Eskom and said he was warned his life could be in danger which prompted him to leave South Africa and keep his current location secret.
He spoke to Carte Blanche about his new book, Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom, in which he exposes widespread corruption and incompetence at the power utility.
When asked where he currently lives, De Ruyter told Carte Blanche that he prefers not to disclose his current location.
“I was made aware that I had reason to be careful. Rather than wait around to see if the intelligence had merit, I decided to be prudent,” he said.
De Ruyter first revealed he was leaving South Africa during an explosive eNCA interview with Annika Larsen where he implicated top politicians and criminal syndicates in Eskom looting.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.