President Cyril Ramaphosa said he does not know of politicians involved in corruption at Eskom, urging those with evidence to present it to law enforcement.
Rampahosa was responding to questions in Parliament concerning South Africa’s ongoing energy crisis.
Leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, said it appeared Ramaphosa had done ‘absolutely nothing’ to hold the cabinet ministers involved in corruption accountable.
Ramaphosa denied this, saying, ‘I have not been presented with any evidence of members of the cabinet, or any other senior government officials alleged to be involved in corruption at Eskom’.
‘Anyone who does have such evidence should provide that information to the relevant authorities so that a thorough investigation of all credible allegations can be conducted.
‘There are institutions whose job it is to investigate these matters as they have the legal mandate, they have the personnel, and they also have the capacity to be able to investigate all these matters.’
Although corruption at Eskom is public knowledge, there ‘never was information ever put out about the personalities that are involved’, said Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa’s comments shocked MPs as they assumed his national security advisor, Dr Sydney Mufamadi, would have notified him of ongoing investigations at the utility.
Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter repeatedly told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that he had presented evidence of multiple high-level politicians, including ministers, that were involved in corruption at the utility to Mufamadi.
Either Mufamadi hasn’t told Ramaphosa or he is wilfully ignoring reports.
According to Ramaphosa, the government continues to take action regarding corruption at Eskom.
[Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth – WPA Pool/Getty Images for news24]