Eskom’s former COO Jan Oberholzer was candid about the capture of Eskom by crime cartels during a recent meeting with the Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Despite Eskom management knowing about wide scale corruption and theft, no concrete proof of cartel interference is available, Oberholzer said.

He said that cartel kingpins continue with their looting without fear because they use lackeys in Eskom to stay below the radar.

“Have we seen anyone in an orange prison overall yet?” he asked.

Eskom’s former CEO André de Ruyter, who blew the whistle on the multi-billion corruption and theft rings that have infiltrated Eskom, remains a target, with the ANC openly discrediting him.

In early April, government granted Eskom exemption from disclosing irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in its annual financial statements, but this was withdrawn a few days later to allow for a ‘period of further engagement’.

While procurement seems to be Eskom’s biggest problem, the competition for mining contracts to supply Eskom has become a catalyst for violence. From De Ruyter’s disclosures and other evidence, it seems corrupt businessmen and politicians are behind Mpumalanga’s bloody warfare for black gold and when intimidation does not force competitors to back off, bullets fly.

In this week’s paper, the Middelburg Observer exposed the mining warfare in Belfast over mining contracts that have resulted in several deadly shootings, most recently the assassination attempt on Mshoza Malaza, who bagged a multi-million rand contract for topsoil stripping and the management of a mine’s rehabilitation dump in December.

Malaza’s index finger had to be amputated, and he went blind for two months, after having been shot at with an R1 automatic rifle, while his daughters, aged seven and six, were in the vehicle with him.

The investigation was taken from the Belfast police and handed to a task team comprising high-profile Middelburg detectives. No arrests have been made, but Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said the investigation is progressing well.

Oberholzer, however, warned that ‘as soon as one cartel falls, another takes its place’.

In 2020, young entrepreneurs Sifiso Sindane and Innocent Malaza were also attacked. Malaza’s house was torched in 2018, while Sindane survived 13 gunshots, with six striking him in the legs.

In 2018, Mduduzi Shongwe was also shot by unknown men, while Petros Nkosi was attacked in 2019, and the house of former eMakhazeni Local Municipality mayor Xolani Ngwenya was torched.