‘He thinks we’re fools’: Gordhan says De Ruyter not ‘poor little guy’ and should show remorse for Eskom failings

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has refused to name any politicians who have been allegedly implicated in corruption at Eskom.

Gordhan was in Parliament on Wednesday responding to allegations made by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter.

There has been a great deal of debate around De Ruyter and Eskom following his interview with eNCA, where he claimed that high-level politicians from the ANC were aware of and involved in corruption at the embattled power utility.

De Ruyter has since released a book, which hit the shelves on Sunday, about his tenure as the chief executive of Eskom.

‘High-level of scepticism’

Addressing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Gordhan said the names he had been made aware of were based on “preliminary information” from De Ruyter’s private intelligence investigation that was incomplete.

The minister said he would not disclose the identities of the politicians because De Ruyter’s allegations were “untested”.

“I am not going to implicate or smear the reputation of others without credible evidence and verifiable facts being provided. Intelligence dossiers, as some of you might remember, have done a great deal of harm and immeasurable damage to our country, its institutions and, by the way, to individuals like [former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head] Johan Booysen in the past.

ALSO READ: De Ruyter ‘at pains to avoid’ naming politicians who knew about Eskom corruption

“In fact, I was a target of the so-called intelligence report in early 2017 – afterwards I was fired as minister of finance – so I know personally what I’m talking about,” he said on Wednesday.

He suggested that Scopa must call De Ruyter or those who conducted the private investigation to provide the names of the politicians.

Gordhan said believing De Ruyter’s allegations to be the truth about what was happening at Eskom needed to be approached with a “high-level of skepticism”.

Regarding the vetting of De Ruyter, Gordhan said the former Eskom boss refused to provide his private financial information to the State Security Agency (SSA) as he was not sure what would be done with it.

Watch the meeting below:

‘Not shooting the messenger’

Gordhan dismissed the suggestion that De Ruyter was a whistleblower.

“De Ruyter is not a messenger… he was in charge of an institution. He was responsible in terms of his contractual obligations for whatever Eskom did or didn’t do. His expressions on corruption are nothing new. We have all said it before his time, during his time and after his time.”

The minister questioned whether De Ruyter recorded conversations he had with people in order to pen his book, titled Truth to Power, My Three Years Inside Eskom.

“Was he more interested in writing a book that would mask his legacy in terms of performance as far as Eskom is concerned? And is that what this book is about? If the message is there’s corruption at Eskom, well we’ve heard it before. The issue is what you are doing about it.

READ MORE: De Ruyter wrote a book instead of solving load shedding – Gordhan tells Scopa as he denies micromanaging

“So this is not shooting the messenger. This is not this poor little guy that’s being attacked. He goes into personal descriptions of all sorts. Is it necessary to give an account of what you did or didn’t do at an institution like Eskom? If you are in charge, you must take a sense of responsibility and if you haven’t accomplished your mission show a sense of remorse,” he said.

“You don’t go around making allegations about individuals. That’s character assassination to defend yourself and some would say that’s narcissistic behaviour at the end of the day. We are not here to analyse De Ruyter’s psychology. There are more important things to do.”

He said he did not know if De Ruyter had evidence to back up his allegations or what the intelligence report contained. 

‘Rest of us are fools’

Gordhan defended the current Eskom board, saying the members were still finding their feet and were engaged.

The minister told Scopa that he was not on trial here.

“I’ve done nothing wrong. The culprits can come here and account for themselves.”

He accused De Ruyter of resorting to “swart gevaar” tactics regarding the way he conducted himself in the interview.

RELATED: ‘Gordhan told De Ruyter to gather intelligence somehow,’ Scopa told

Gordhan also denied saying “some must eat” when De Ruyter informed him about corrupt activities at Eskom.

“I haven’t seen anybody so hungry for whom I must say they must eat inappropriately and eat public funds. No, I will not say anything like that nor will I tolerate that. As I said repeatedly, I don’t care where you come from, if there’s evidence against you pay the price.”

He added that the narrative was that the “only hero in SA is De Ruyter”.

“The rest of us are fools. Only he knows what’s best and the rest of us are still in our nappies apparently.”