President Cyril Ramaphosa finally broke his silence on the bombshell allegations made by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter implicating senior ANC politicians and powerful cartels, which he alleged were at the root of the problems at the sukkeling power utility.
During a media briefing while hosting Uganda President Yoweri Museveni for a state visit at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday, Ramaphosa was asked to respond to De Ruyter’s controversial television interview last week.
Ramaphosa told journalists that government was “most concerned” about De Ruyter’s utterances and urged the ex-chief executive to approach the independent institutions armed with resources to investigate his claims.
He said that after hearing the interview, he immediately thought why didn’t De Ruyter, “being a person at a level of general CEO”, report to any of those institutions.
“With the info he purports to have, there are institutions that are independent where there will be no form of interference, where there will not be any form of diversion, blockage or any form of sabotage.
“I have a great deal of faith and trust in those institutions and once the complaints are lodged, they have the full capability to investigate,” Ramaphosa explained.
He said he felt it was a “missed opportunity” for De Ruyter.
In an hour-long interview on e.tv’s My Guest Tonight with Annika Larsen, De Ruyter spoke about what he thought were the underlying causes of Eskom’s continued struggle with corruption and poor performance.
He implicated the ANC in corruption at the power utility and alleged that senior ministers and others were “eating at the trough”, but gave no further evidence or details.
Ramaphosa urged De Ruyter to report his claims so that the investigative processes can commence, “also so that all of us are better informed, because without doing so, we are in a world of rumours, hearsay and then we start looking at each [other] with a great deal of suspicion”.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za