De Ruyter ‘snubbed’ the Hawks on explosive claims against ministers

Cape Town - Former Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter apparently declined a Hawks request to meet senior investigators over his allegations about corruption at the power utility implicating a Cabinet minister.

This emerged when Hawks boss Godfrey Lebeya briefed the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday, saying they had through Major-General Nicholas Jacobus Gerber, the provincial head of the Hawks in Mpumalanga, reached out to De Ruyter as a courtesy call immediately after his media interview to ascertain the information first hand.

“De Ruyter declined to meet Major-General Gerber, but referred him to his lawyer, Willem Janse van Rensburg, who promised to talk to De Ruyter and revert to the DPCI. Unfortunately the promise was not fulfilled,” Lebeya said.

The Hawks also revealed that De Ruyter only furnished his corruption report at the power utility after he went public with his allegations in a in a television interview.

This report, which has been called into question, focused on cartels, syndicates and implicated senior politicians.

Lebeya said there were three investigations linked to De Ruyter.

One case related to the alleged poisoning case in which De Ruyter is a complainant; and his alleged failure to lodge a Section 34 report in terms of Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca) lodged by Build One South leader Mmusi Maimane.

Lebeya said a Precca report was submitted on April 25, 2023 by a firm of attorneys on behalf of De Ruyter.

“It is important to note that this is the first Section 34 report that was reported to the Central Reporting Office on behalf of Mr De Ruyter in relation to Eskom corruption allegations.

“It was received a day before Mr De Ruyter appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts,” Lebeya said.

Special Investigating Unit (SIU) head Andy Mothibi said the allegations made by De Ruyter in his television interview were never brought to the attention of SIU by either the former CEO or Eskom officials.

“What we did after the publication of the interview, we made several attempts to contact the former CEO, however, our contacts were to no avail as he did not respond to our calls,” Mothibi said.

Mothibi said De Ruyter had written to the SIU requesting the unit to undertake specific investigations.

“We processed a proclamation to cover some areas and a proclamation was issued recently.

“It covers all of the power stations at Eskom.

“This really indicates the extent of the work with the CEO and Eskom management,” he said.

SAPS’ lieutenant-general Peter Jacobs confirmed to Scopa that De Ruyter held two meetings with police management in June 2022 and July 2022.

Jacobs said no specific information containing elements that would enable the SAPS to open criminal investigations were conveyed during the meetings.

“Reference to criminal activity within and related to Eskom was always generic, and more strategic of content, rather indicating trends.

“The only specific case raised by Mr De Ruyter with the national commissioner outside the meeting of July 5, 2022 related to Mr Matshela Koko,” he said, adding that national commissioner Fannie Masemola had raised the matter with the Hawks.

The Eskom board is expected to brief Scopa on De Ruyter’s allegations on Wednesday.

Cape Times