De Ruyter spilled the beans on TV before reporting crime to police – Scopa told

Former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter only officially filed a complaint in relation to Eskom corruption with the authorities a day before he appeared in Parliament.

This is according to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DCPI), also known as Hawks.

The Hawks, alongside officials from the South African Police Service (Saps) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday.

De Ruyter made headlines earlier this year following his interview with eNCA, where he made bold allegations of senior politicians being directly involved with and entrenched in corruption at Eskom.

The former Eskom CEO went on to accuse the ANC, in particular, of using the power utility as a “feeding trough”.

Meeting did not materialise

Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya confirmed to Scopa on Tuesday that there were three investigations linked to De Ruyter, which included his poisoning incident and Mmusi Maimane’s case against the former Eskom boss over his alleged failure to report suspected corruption.

Third investigation related to a report submitted by De Ruyter’s lawyers regarding Eskom corruption on 25 April, which was a day before he appeared before Scopa.

“It is important to note that this is the first Section 34 report that was reported to the central reporting office on Mr De Ruyter in relation to Eskom corruption allegations,” he told the committee.

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Lebeya revealed that De Ruyter refused to meet with police who approached him a day after his interview aired.

“Mr De Ruyter declined to meet the officer, but referred him to his lawyer, who promised to talk to the office, but unfortunately, the promise to come back to the provincial head did not materialise so that’s where we ended with the reporting from Mr Ruyter and the rest of the investigation will continue.”

When he appeared before Scopa last month, De Ruyter insisted that he complied with the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca) when he approached Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security advisor, Sydney Mufamadi, with the information he had about crime and corruption at Eskom.

Earlier, former crime intelligence head, Peter Jacobs told Scopa that De Ruyter met with police officials, including national police commissioner Fannie Masemola, on two occasions last year, however, specific details emerged from the meetings.

SIU investigations

The SIU also revealed that De Ruyter or any other Eskom officials never brought the Eskom allegations to the investigating unit’s attention despite having met a number of times.

“The SIU provides a monthly report on the status of its investigations to Eskom [and] as part of its continuous engagement with Eskom, one of the matters regularly discussed are new areas requiring investigation.

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“In this case, the former CEO has actually on several occasions written to the SIU and requested the SIU undertake specific investigations, including prompting the SIU to apply for extensions to its proclamations,” SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi said.

Mothibi said the SIU made several attempts to engage with De Ruyter after his interview, he never responded to the investigating unit’s request for a meeting.

“It is clear of course that these matters were reported to the DPCI,” he said.

Eskom private investigation

Mothibi further revealed that SIU had no prior knowledge of Eskom’s private intelligence investigation into corruption, until it was mentioned by De Ruyter when he appeared before Scopa.

“The investigating team immediately request a copy of the report from Eskom officials as it was important that we access it and see matters that require further attention [but] we were advised by Eskom on the 5th of May that Eskom is not in possession of that report,” he continued.

“It is really our interest to seek certain clarification and answers to certain questions in terms of what has transpired here.

“We need to understand who authorised the appointment of the private investigating company that the former CEO referred to and why would Eskom appoint an investigating company when the allegations could been referred to the SIU, the DPCI or state Security Agency for investigation whether the report of the private investigating company was handed to Eskom and presented to the board.”

Watch the meeting below:

De Ruyter told Scopa last month that the R50 million investigation, which was funded by private donors.

“If the investigation was paid for by third parties, then who are these third parties without really questioning the credentials, thereof, as a matter of comprehensiveness. The other important question is whether the payment by Eskom to this private investigating company was budgeted for, if paid by Eskom that is.

“It has come to the SIU’s attention that the said report found its way into the public and this really will need to be looked at in terms of who leaked it and so,” Mothibi added.

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