PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has labelled Andre de Ruyter as a “know-all” CEO.
He said instead of focusing on his job of keeping power stations burning and providing electricity to South Africa, the former Eskom CEO was busy writing books.
Gordhan said this on Wednesday, 17 May when he appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Account (Scopa) to answer to allegations that he knew about corruption and theft at Eskom.
De Ruyter claimed in an interview on eNCA in February 2023 that a minister and senior politician were made aware of the alleged corruption at Eskom and were part of it. He also alleged that Gordhan was interfering at the power utility.
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Gordhan said: ”I think here what we have is a CEO who thought he was know-all and he certainly had not worked at a power situation before. So, I refute any assertion and allegations about giving instructions.”
He denied giving De Ruyter permission to use outside agencies to gather intelligence about corruption at Eskom.
The minister said De Ruyter mentioned in passing that he was using the project because law enforcement was not coming to the party and no approval was sought from him.
He said the CEO only showed him a diagram and asked him who were the people depicted.
“He was operating on his own free will, so to speak on this project. And at the same, it seems he was writing a book rather than focusing on his job of keeping power stations burning and providing electricity to South Africa,” said Gordhan.
The minister said he would not mention people whose names were on the diagram because he was not given any copy of the investigation.
“I was told this was preliminary information but certainly not evidence. I am not going to implicate or smear the reputation of others without credible evidence and verifiable facts being provided,” he said.
Gordhan denied he gave instructions to engineers working at power stations.
He said: “Unfortunately, I have to categorise this as absolute nonsense. There is no micro-managing. I think here, what we have is a CEO who thought he was a know-all and he certainly hadn't worked in a power station situation before, so I refute any assertion and allegation about giving instructions.”
He said De Ruyter wanted to ascribe everything and every problem to ANC rather than focus on doing his bid to ensure corruption did not continue under his watch.
