Eskom says an independent investigation has cleared group chief executive André de Ruyter of racism and of any wrongdoing in applying procurement and recruitment policies.
The allegations of racism and failing to comply with policy were made against De Ruyter by former Eskom chief procurement officer Solly Tshitangano.
According to EWN, the board released a statement on Wednesday detailing the findings of a report by advocate Ishmael Semenya, which described some of the allegations as ‘wild’, ‘bizarre’ and ‘baseless’.
Tshitangano sent memos of the allegations to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the minister of public enterprises and Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts.
Eskom fired Tshitangano ‘with immediate effect’ on Friday after he was found guilty on five charges in a disciplinary hearing.
The hearing found Tshitangano guilty of ‘serious misconduct in failing to carry out his duties, contravening the Public Finance Management Act and for contravening Eskom’s disciplinary code in that he divulged confidential information to external parties’.
Tshitangano had been suspended in February this year on ‘several grounds of misconduct, including non-performance’, the power utility said.
Yesterday, Eskom said it ‘deeply regrets the waste of time, money, [and] resources incurred by taxpayers’ as a result of what it described as ‘irresponsible conduct’.