The power utility has been sabotaged and filled with corruption Photo lowvelder
South Africa – When we think about Eskom certain words are attached to it; loadshedding, corruption and sabotage. When Former Eskom CEO, Andrew de Ruyter, sat down for his explosive interview, he confirmed the last two words were true about Eskom. Corruption and sabotage is what was taking place daily at the power utility which led to loadshedding.
In 2021 News24’s investigation team published over 60 articles regarding the corruption taking place at power utility. It was during this time Kyle Cowan, Author and Investigative journalist at News24, realised there was an effort to “mess up power stations” and disrupt operations at Eskom. This prompted him to write the book Sabotage: Eskom Under Siege. According to Cowan, de Ruyter and Jan Oberholze, Eskom chief operating officer, were put under immense pressure which is a form of sabotage.
“There was enormous pressure placed on them through investigations based on conspiracy allegations. They faced eight separate investigations over the course of two years. At one stage Jan Oberholze spent at least 40% of his working week responding to investigations. All of this was aimed at getting rid of them. I view this and these attempts as an attempt to sabotage them. In the process the actual management suffered a great deal.”
De Ruyter’s interview, Eskom and the ANC
The interview with de Ruyter revealed a lot of wrongdoings at Eskom. It opened up a can of worms and seemed to confirm what everyone was thinking, Eskom was being destroyed by corruption and sabotage. However, none of what he said seemed to be taken seriously by the ruling party. How the ANC reacted to the interview surprised Cowan. To him, it seemed like the party was trying to make it seem like the corruption is a myth despite the massive amount of evidence available.
“It comes down to whether or not the ANC is at all believable in its reaction. I don’t think they are. Even if they weren’t directly involved in corruption, the ANC was part of deployments to Eskom that facilitated grand corruption but their complicity in it is by not doing anything about it. Political interference at Eskom is one of the main reasons why we still have loadshedding today.”
For Cowan, we shouldn’t hold our breath for the president or the minister of electricity to admit there is massive corruption taking place at the power utility. To admit to this is to admit that the entire system is broken. Something they wish to avoid.
Cowan does see change happening at Eskom. However, it is not clear whether that change will be good in the long term. South Africa has the right policies to turn it around and save it. It is just a matter of whether the government can implement them effectively or continue to be inactive and watch Eskom crumble.
To hear more from Kyle Cowan about Eskom and turning it around, listen to the podcast here:
