Ex-cop tells Scopa De Ruyter’s corruption on Eskom info was not verified

A retired police officer has told Parliament that former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter‘s allegations of corruption and maladministration at Eskom weren’t verified and therefore, nothing further could be done.

Brigadier Jaap Burger finally appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday after three no-shows.

Scopa has been seeking answers as to how the allegations of corruption, maladministration and other criminal activities made by De Ruyter earlier this year are being handled by law enforcement.

The committee heard in a previous meeting that Burger was the designated police official dealing with the allegations.

Fivaz intelligence

On Wednesday, Burger was grilled about the privately funded intelligence investigation, conducted by George Fivaz Forensic and Risk (GFFR), into Eskom on behalf of De Ruyter without Eskom’s permission.

The retired police officer told Parliament the Fivaz investigation was done in parallel with the police’s own investigations and that he did not receive any intelligence report coming out of the probe.

He indicated the bits and pieces of broad information that he did receive from former police commissioner George Fivaz, in the presence of De Ruyter last year, wasn’t validated.

Burger said although Fivaz’s intelligence was not corroborated by the State Security Agency (SSA), he passed on the information he obtained to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DCPI), also known as Hawks.

“Most of the information was about the criminality around Eskom. I don’t recall anything regarding financial irregularities on Eskom,” he told the committee.

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

Burger, however, highlighted that the information could not be used in this instance and there was nothing further he could do.

The officer said he was aware that the Fivaz investigation was not authorised by Eskom.

“I knew it was not legal and that is why I went and engaged the State Security Agency, specifically the counter intelligence environment, to dig into this to see what is behind it. That is the support I requested from [the SSA] and that is the support that they did not provide.

“I’m not saying the information was gained illegally. They might have sources using private intelligence that might have been gained legally, but the essence of employing a company to work on intelligence for Eskom was, to me, highly irregular,” Burger explained.

De Ruyter not vetted

Burger further told MPs he believed De Ruyter commissioned the private investigation because he did not trust law enforcement agencies nor SSA to “serve him”.

But the former officer agreed with Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa that De Ruyter had placed himself in a conundrum since the former Eskom CEO was not vetted by the SSA, meaning he didn’t have security clearance to get access to intelligence about the affairs of the state-owned entity (SOE).

“Mr De Ruyter gets appointed as the CEO, so he must go through a vetting process and he doesn’t want to do that, but at the same time he wants to gain services from the State Security Agency. How was that going to work because you said he was not being serviced?” Hlengwa asked.

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

Burger, in his response, said De Ruyter not undergoing the vetting process placed him and Parliament in the “disastrous situation” they found themselves in.

“The simple thing is how can you receive a security briefing about a national key point which is classified by law if you’re not security competent, in other words not vetted. So it’s a chicken and egg [situation]… it’s just a disastrous situation and that’s why we are sitting here isn’t it,” the officer replied.

Watch the meeting below:

Scopa to meet in two weeks

Earlier, Burger had defended De Ruyter about his failure to report the information he had to the police as required by the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca), saying the former Eskom boss told Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, whose department is responsible for the power utility.

“He did not follow the administrative route of taking down the prescribed form and getting a reference. We did discuss that and I urged him to make a formal report.”

Burger also pointed out that De Ruyter didn’t tell him about the specific issues at Eskom that were resulting in a R1 billion loss for the power utility.

“There’s much more complexity in looking at all the losses of Eskom. Maybe ask Mr De Ruyter how he got to that figure… I don’t know,” he replied.

READ MORE: Hawks not investigating any politician over Eskom corruption

He further confirmed that two senior politicians were mentioned in the information he received from Fivaz.

Meanwhile, Scopa has confirmed that it will meet in two weeks’ time “to discuss the way forward” following the conclusion of its investigation.

A report will be compiled by the parliamentary committee.

Alongside Burger, Scopa previously called everyone linked to De Ruyter’s allegations – made in an explosive interview on eNCA in February – including Gordhan, Eskom’s board, Hawks members, national police commissioner Fannie Masemola, Police Minister Bheki Cele and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).