- Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has defended its decision to fund the intelligence investigation into crime and corruption at Eskom carried out by George Fivaz Forensic and Risk (GFFR).
- The private investigation was commissioned by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter.
- BLSA says it has led to the arrest of 43 people for various crimes and disrupted various coal syndicates, leading to the recovery of millions of rands by Eskom.
The investigation and credibility of the resulting report has taken a knock because the lead investigator, Tony Oosthuizen, was an apartheid operative.
CEO of BLSA Busi Mavuso and CEO of Business Unity SA (BUSA) Cas Coovadia briefed journalists yesterday confirming that they stood by the decision to fund the investigation. Mavusa said assisting the government to build a capable state in the aftermath of the state capture era was central to business’ concerns. BLSA paid R18 million for the investigation, a decision that was approved by the board.
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Mavuso said that the decision was intended to augment the efforts of the authorities to root out crime and corruption at Eskom, and it was the CEO of Eskom, André de Ruyter, who approached BLSA. “We don’t get involved in appointing service providers…..we were shocked and dismayed to learn that an individual with a tainted history had been involved” said Mavuso. She added that BLSA did not support the appointment of such people. “To simply dismiss the detailed intelligence-gathering on the basis that one cog in the investigative process has a racist and reactionary history is neither logical nor fair,” said Mavuso
Coovadia added that the assertion that the reports from GFFR was not worth the paper they were written on did not correspond with the information they received.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
