Cape Town — Police Minister Bheki Cele says there is a huge “political will” to increase efforts to eradicate the sabotage and corruption plaguing Eskom.
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) met with the SA Police Service (SAPS), the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on Tuesday to determine whether it should initiate an inquiry into the corruption and maladministration allegations made by De Ruyter in the days before he left office.
EWN reported that police informed Scopa that no politicians are being investigated in relation to corruption at the utility.
“Chairperson, political will? Huge on this matter. Besides being personal on it. Political will is huge,” Cele was quoted as saying.
MPs criticised the Police for their lack of action towards corruption at the power utility. However, Cele revealed that former CEO Andre De Ruyter did not report the alleged involvement of politicians.
“Everybody said to me, no. All of them. They said no. Not a single report coming about these individual politicians,” Cele was quoted as saying.
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Cele also highlighted the R2 billion spent by Eskom and added that it does not seem like the funds were used effectively.
“The plan from the head of security was laid bare. It was the first time I heard that Eskom spent about R2 billion on security matters internally with about 6 000 private security companies. One tried to find out this R2bn, what are they doing. One did not get a sense really, it was a little bit unexplainable,” IOL quoted Cele as saying.
Cele said there have been meetings with Eskom officials to get to the bottom of the criminal networks and theft taking place, the report added.
“Then as we go on, the matters of sabotage on that meeting came. There were a few examples made, one example was that coal moved from where it was supposed to be, to the station, and on the way the route will be changed. I am sure it has come up in these investigations, these bogus coal farms,” he was quoted as saying.
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
