Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) is hard at work trying to unravel a myriad of difficulties contributing to the weakening of operations at Eskom. The challenges facing the power utility were compounding over several years and include maladministration, corruption, poor governance and poor leadership.
We commend the work undertaken by Scopa to drill down to the bottom of the matter. The story of Eskom is a story of great pain to all South Africans. If wishes were horses, we would all wish for a well-run organisation unhindered by malfeasance and corruption and the alleged presence of self-serving cartels.
Yet we must express our concern about the presence of private intelligence that clandestinely carried out its investigative work, ostensibly at the behest of the utility’s former CEO, Andre de Ruyter.
This piece of information was highlighted by former public utility interim chair Professor Malegapuru Makgoba.
Many senior individuals in government must have known about the clandestine intelligence conducted by former apartheid operatives. So, why were the SAPS and Hawks not keen to investigate but proved “lackadaisical about what needed to be done while Rome was burning”, as Makgoba put it.
All hands need to be on deck to rebuild Eskom to its former glory.
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