De Ruyter blows the lid on a syndicate operating within Eskom that was draining the company dry.
Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter detailed the modus operandi of a major syndicate operating at Eskom’s power plants –– which cost the utility and South Africa R1.2 billion and more over several years.Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside EskomDe Ruyter described how he realised that aside from neglected equipment, ageing power stations and an eroded skills base, Eskom was crippled by corruption on a staggering scale.
“The good coal would be certified at the mine, but along the way, the truck stops at a discard site, and its original load was either wholly or partially replaced by the low-quality stuff,” explained De Ruyter. The truck driver would subsequently be paid R5,000 per load for his part in the scheme. “One single power station, Tutuka, was burning around 43% of all the fuel oil purchased by Eskom – purchasing 36 deliveries of fuel oil per day,” noted De Ruyter.
An investigation conducted by Mametja and the review of CCTV footage revealed that the suppliers of the oil had been indulging in “round-tripping”. Adding to the concern of this realisation is that this kind of corruption requires the collusion of a whole chain of power station workers – from the security guards to the weighbridge operator to the supply chain worker – they all have to be in on the scheme.
Additionally, this was not the only dodgy activity going on at the power station, and it had been going on for several years. Add this to the fact that Eskom has 14 other coal-fired stations, none of which were 100% untainted, and you start to get a sense of the scale of the corruption, De Rutyer added.
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