Experts fear De Ruyter has become the target of criminal networks

André de Ruyter, chief executive of Eskom, will have to watch his back after an apparent spy device was allegedly discovered in his car.

Experts now fear he has become the target of criminal and, possibly, political networks. There are fears that De Ruyter may meet the same fate as whistle-blower Babita Deokaran, who was murdered after exposing a corrupt Covid personal protective equipment procurement scandal while working as the acting chief financial officer at the Gauteng department of health.

Criminologist Professor Jaco Barkhuizen said the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture had reported terms of potential sabotage of state-owned enterprises.

“As the taps of finance are closed to these types of criminal networks, more and more sabotage would happen as a fightback to keep the money flowing.

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“It’s no surprise that people are being spied on, units break down unexpectedly and weird human errors [occur]. It is all criminal fightback,” he said.

Barkhuizen said when financial flows stopped, criminals would do anything to protect these ill-gotten gains.

“Eskom needed serious security upgrades and inside intelligence to turn it around,” he said.

Energy expert Chris Yelland said some criminals feeding off Eskom were threatened by efforts taken by De Ruyter to clamp down on irregularities, fraud, theft and other criminal activities.

“They want to take control of the leadership positions, to take it back to previous criminal activities that were being shut down by the current management and the CEO,” he said.

Yelland said people with hidden agendas were trying to force De Ruyter out.

“Spying devices are all illegal, even if it was done by the security services of South Africa,” he said.

Yelland said information obtained through these measures had been grossly misused for political agendas in the past.

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said he had his doubts about the threats against De Ruyter after reading the spy device was closer to a gate remote than a sophisticated device.

“Saying that, I also do not doubt that it is a dangerous job. If I were De Ruyter, I would look over my shoulder,” he said.

Croucamp said it could be politically connected, especially looking at the orchestrated attempt to spy on De Ruyter and undermine him.

“This could be an indirect consequence due to the guys who do not want the corruption to be exposed,” he said. Croucamp said De Ruyter should not leave. “To be honest, I can’t think of anyone else who would better manage Eskom than De Ruyter,” he said.

De Ruyter’s security not the only problem

Meanwhile, De Ruyter’s security was not the only problem he had. An Eskom employee, who agreed to speak anonymously for fear of being targeted, said they were concerned about the financial state of Eskom and the competence of the people managing the finances.

“Corruption is no longer such a big problem,” the employee said. “The problem is people appointed to jobs they cannot perform. The guys don’t know how to draw up a budget and have no idea what the projection is for the next year or three – or whether there is an income to forecast or allocate.”

The employee said the budget was either too big or not nearly enough and added Eskom took too long to follow through with some of the projects.

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“There is a lot of speculation about the buildings they said they were selling. Sometimes, they have so many contractors to take a look it adds up to the amount it would cost to do renovations,” the source said.

The employee said workers who were competent to do the job were not informed of what was going on.

“I think to some extent, management protects management because they don’t know what is going on, either. I think at this stage there is a mixed bag of people who are in positions but who do not know what they are doing.”

– marizkac@citizen.co.za