Business Leadership SA Insists it Did the Right Thing with Controversial Intelligence Reports into Eskom
Key Highlights :
Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) insists it did the right thing by funding the controversial intelligence reports into crime and corruption at Eskom. The reports, commissioned by former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, have resulted in the arrest of 43 people, the disruption of various coal syndicates, and the recovery of millions of rands by Eskom.
BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) CEO Cas Coovadia briefed journalists on Thursday, saying they stand by the decision to fund the work, which was done to assist the state "to do what it should do". Mavuso said that BLSA was “shocked and dismayed” to learn that an individual with a “tainted history” had been involved, but argued that “to simply dismiss the detailed intelligence-gathering on the basis that one cog in the investigative process has a racist and reactionary history is neither logical nor fair.”
Coovadia said the assertion that the reports from George Fivaz Forensic and Risk (GFFR) were not worth the paper they were written on did not correspond with the information they received. He said, “What we have seen there have been a lot of positive outcomes from this report. It was always our understanding that the work we were asked to fund would, on the basis of information the CEO of Eskom had about corruption and sabotage, try to uncover that and connect the dots and then make it available to the authorities to decide whether they want to act on it. And we believe that has happened to a certain extent.”
BLSA paid R18 million for the investigation, a decision that was approved by the board. BUSA, of which BLSA is a member, wholeheartedly supported the decision and, in recent discussions with CEOs, had not received any pushback. Coovadia acknowledged, though, “that lessons have been learned.”
BLSA and BUSA maintain that the investigation was necessary and valuable, and that the information gathered was useful. The outcome of the investigation, which was trumpeted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation speech in February, has led to the disruption of various coal syndicates and the recovery of millions of rands by Eskom. Despite the controversy surrounding the appointment of Tony Oosthuizen, a former apartheid operative, BLSA and BUSA insist that the decision to fund the investigation was the right one.
