- Eskom welcomes the briefing by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on the investigations conducted into the affairs of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 to increase understanding of the scale of the challenges and the action being taken to address these
- The SIU reports that Eskom staff have manipulated procurement processes to siphon over R1 billion.
- South Africa’s Auditor General has recently raised serious concerns regarding Eskom’s lax internal controls as debt spirals. Read more
Reporting to the standing committee on public accounts (SCOPA) this week, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) head, Adv Andy Mothibi, said that Eskom staff have manipulated procurement processes to siphon over R1 billion in and after hours scheme which was spilt into smaller contracts to avoid detection.
“Some of them were done after hours – not because they were committed to ensuring the work was done but as part of the modus operandi,” said Mothibi.
The investigation also found that 334 employees had financial ties to Eskom vendors, while 5,464 employees failed to declare conflicts of interest.
This scheme extended to family members and networks of entities used to launder stolen funds and senior officials deliberately failed to defend Eskom in dispute resolution cases, allowing fraudulent claims to be paid out in exchange for kickbacks, Mothibi revealed.
“Executives and senior members did not defend Eskom effectively because they were part of the scheme,” Mothibi said.
The Eskom partnership with the SIU and other law enforcement agencies is premised on holding accountable those implicated in wrongdoing, recovering financial losses, and strengthening governance processes.
In the main, the SIU investigation spans almost a 20-year period from 1 January 2003 to 2 December 2022.
“We are applying the same effort as we did to end loadshedding to ending years of governance and accountability failings and it is a task like no other,” said Eskom Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane. “We are creating a sustainable and investable Eskom through the focussed execution of our action plans to address historical misconduct, reinforce governance, and foster ethical business conduct,” added Marokane.
“In addition to our partnership with the SIU and the appointment of specialist forensic expertise to address historical issues, we already have in place a new, strengthened executive team that has the appropriate skills and leadership to drive adherence to internal controls, risk management and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) who are highly motivated and focused on the challenge at hand. A resourcing drive to adequately capacitate the finance, internal audit and forensics functions to address key skills lost over the years has now commenced,” continued Marokane.
“Our efforts are driven by our commitment to using public money efficiently by strengthening governance and our management controls through appointing the right people to the right roles to drive an ethical, high-performance culture that is coupled with consequence management,” said Mteto Nyati, Eskom Board Chairperson.
“Our partnership with the SIU, and the various organs of state under the auspices of the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) Energy Safety & Security Priority Committee, is crucial in ensuring that all forms of criminality that impact our ability to effectively and efficiently deliver on our mandate are dealt with decisively,” concluded Nyati.
As part of its drive to enhance governance and combat corruption, Eskom has restructured its forensic, security, and investigative functions under the newly established Group Investigations and Security division, which now reports directly to the Group Chief Executive. Additionally, a dedicated Project Management Office has been created to analyse data-driven findings, oversee internal and external investigations, and clear the backlog of cases in coordination with law enforcement agencies.
Eskom remains committed to rooting out corruption and strengthening its governance framework. We will continue to provide support and the necessary information to ensure that all pending cases are resolved promptly. As investigations continue across Eskom and its related suppliers, we anticipate further corruption revelations and arrests.
Eskom say they will continue to focus on implementing generation recovery, strengthening governance, and tackling crime and corruption while future-proofing the organisation to enable energy security, growth, and long-term sustainability to the benefit of South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
