Don’t let ANC control freaks keep us in the dark

It is outrageous that corruption-riddled Eskom, R423 billion in debt, is being allowed to keep us in the dark about its finances until 2025.

National Treasury, custodian of taxpayers’ money, has granted the utility exemption from a requirement to disclose expenditure that does not comply with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

Few have forgotten how the public purse was looted by ANC politicians under the state of disaster regulations during the Covid pandemic. Now, they have an opportunity to do more of the same at disastrous Eskom.

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Allegations by former chief executive André de Ruyter about corruption involving Cabinet ministers are still fresh. Since De Ruyter’s televised disclosures on 23 February, there have been no notable arrests and no clean-up.

Instead, new Electricity Minister “Sputla” Ramokgopa told a disbelieving nation corruption is not a key issue affecting Eskom’s performance. Even if that were true, there is no way Eskom should be exempt from disclosing irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure in its statements.

The utility cannot be allowed to conceal vital information about what it does with the vast amounts of our money it spends.

De Ruyter isn’t the only source of information about Eskom malfeasance. Shortly after his TV interview, detailed allegations were published about four crime cartels plundering Eskom.

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Head of these cartels was depicted as a “territorial ruler”, who has since been named as David Mabuza, who resigned as deputy president days later.

Long before that, in April last year, the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture found that R14.7 billion had been looted from Eskom. The Gupta-era plundering of Eskom was intertwined with the ANC.

In fact, Eskom has been synonymous with corruption since 2006, when the ANC’s investment arm, Chancellor House, via a 25% holding in Hitachi Power Africa, was linked to a multibillion-rand power station-building contract. This deal fell foul of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

So, the international financial community has long known about ANC/Eskom corruption.

If, as energy expert Chris Yelland suggested in The Citizen yesterday, the latest move is an attempt to avoid a qualified audit, so as not to create problems with lenders, it is ill-advised. Wise lenders will not be fooled by an attempted cover-up through this PFMA exemption.

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Given the ANC’s involvement with Eskom corruption, it’s an insult to South Africans’ intelligence when an ANC finance minister seeks to give Eskom such an exemption. Political parties and Outa are doing the nation a favour by challenging this.

As Outa’s Wayne Duvenhage asks: “Who can blame the public if they don’t trust government’s latest move to exempt Eskom from adhering to the PFMA?”

Lax financial management has contributed to Eskom’s enfeebled state. Cost overruns and debt on Eskom projects helped reduce SA to sovereign junk status. And here we sit, greylisted too, trying to draw a dark curtain over how money is abused at Eskom. This cannot be allowed.

We need more light on Eskom’s finances. And much more solar energy in our homes, schools, hospitals, factories, offices – indeed on the national grid. Don’t let ANC control freaks keep us in the dark, in any sense.

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