Cape Town – In a recent interview, former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter revealed much about the depths of corruption at the power utility. He claimed that those involved in corruption at the company would hide their supercars in garages in order to pass lifestyle audits.
He said this while speaking to eNCA journalist Annika Larsen.
De Ruyter, who took over as CEO in 2020, parted ways with Eskom prematurely last week despite being due to leave the company in March.
The shock announcement was made by Eskom shortly after the interview with Larson.
He claimed that “Eskom is a feeding trough for the ANC”.
De Ruyter revealed that around R1 billion gets stolen from Eskom every month, according to his estimations.
He said that his efforts to rid Eskom of the corruption that plagues the company were rewarded with people who wanted him dead as he was allegedly poisoned with Cyanide in an attempt on his life.
ALSO READ | WATCH | ‘Eskom is a feeding trough for the ANC’, says Andre De Ruyter
IOL reported that those at Eskom lived a lavish lifestyle, but had creative ways to throw it under the covers when the time came for their lifestyles to be audited.
According to De Ruyter, there is a particular garage that helped the allegedly corrupt members of Eskom to hide their supercars when it was required.
“If you feel like driving it, you order it, and it gets delivered to you. This particular car dealer renders a particularly innovative service,” De Ruyter was quoted as saying.
“This is well-known. We have seen Eskom buyers parading on Facebook with all of their fineries, and when we investigated, it turned out they were corrupt. There is no shame or attempt to hide it.”
“Eskom is a feeding trough for the ANC!
The ANC wanted to eat the R8.5billion we got from, COP27.
There is a minister who knows this. There is another minister who is eating.”
— André de Ruyter spits fire & propaganda on his way out— pic.twitter.com/vp4JFfA1uF
— Constitution First ?? (@Constitution_94) February 22, 2023
When asked by Larsen if Eskom is a feeding trough for the ANC, De Ruyter said “yes”.
“I would say the evidence suggests that it is. I expressed my concern to a senior government minister about attempts, in my view, to water down governance around the 8.5 billion USD that, by in large through Eskom’s intervention, we got at COP26.
“And the response was essentially, ‘you have to be pragmatic. In order to pursue the greater good, you have to enable some people to eat a little bit’”.
De Ruyter said that when he approached a minister to report a high-level politician involved in corruption, this particular minister said: “I guess it was inevitable that it would come out anyway”.
The former CEO added that the politician is still acting as a member of parliament.
Watch the full interview here:
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/ @AnnikaLarsen1
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
