De Ruyter’s go-to police investigator says Eskom is a ‘swamp of organised crime’

A retired police officer has lamented the lack of progress made in dealing with criminal activities at Eskom as Parliament continues to seek answers.

Brigadier Jaap Burger appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday to be questioned about allegations of corruption and maladministration at Eskom as alluded to by the power utility’s former CEO André de Ruyter.

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Last month, Scopa resolved to subpoena Burger after failing to appear before the committee on numerous occasions, citing security concerns.

It was heard in previous Scopa meetings that national police commissioner Fannie Masemola designated Burger, who retired in June, as De Ruyter’s contact person within the police with whom he could share the intelligence gathered about organised crime at Eskom.

‘National security’

Flanked by legal representative, Burger told the committee on Wednesday that “it wasn’t from a position of arrogance” that he snubbed their invitations, but “from a position of working in a contaminated space”.

The retired officer said that Masemola “misrepresented” him when the commissioner explained the reasons why he could not appear before the committee.

He also said he had an obligation to protect the identity of witnesses and whistle-blowers.

“I need to make sure, to a full extent, that people are protected,” Burger said.

Burger had earlier informed MPs that he initially was not tasked with handling Eskom investigations.

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He said, in his opening remarks, he understood that the South African Police Service (Saps) would deal with matters from top to the bottom, however, they only went after “runners” rather than the kingpins behind criminal activities such a coal theft.

The officer said he was of the view that the authorities would not win fight against corruption by avoiding and not addressing the problem.

“We are not approaching these issues as a matter of national security interest. Just look at [what] Eskom’s lack of generating power is doing to the country. It affects all walks of life, but we want to address it from a docket perspective. We do have a national security council don’t we? What have they done around this because what does the national security council do? I don’t know either because they have been silent on this. They have not addressed anything,” Burger said.

“The processes of government [are] not working so is the oversight mechanisms,” he continued.

Watch the meeting below:

Burger said law enforcement agencies had to deal with resistance.

“Eskom is functioning in a swamp of organised crime especially if you look at the Mpumalanga area. This is information and intelligence around it not from Eskom or De Ruyter per say… it is known. As previously alluded to, Eskom was already under investigation by other entities as part of its security concerns.”

The officer cited one meeting he had with Police Minister Bheki Cele earlier this year, where he was informed National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (Natjoints) officers would be deployed to Eskom power stations to deal with crime.

“Deployment of people will not address organised crime or the nature of it,” Burger told MPs.

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