Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The ANC’s national working committee (NWC) recommended that the party fight back against allegations levelled at it — and two as yet unnamed senior leaders — by former Eskom boss Andre de Ruyter.
In the NWC meeting on Monday that continued well into the night, the party’s administrative arm was unilateral in its resolve that De Ruyter should be legally challenged over his claim that cabinet members were involved in the looting of the state electricity entity.
ANC insiders said that secretary general Fikile Mbalula’s decision to have its lawyers draw up a legal letter to challenge De Ruyer’s recent claims, which were made during a tell-all interview with eNCA, was supported by all NWC members.
The party will use all its resources to hire the best legal minds to go up against De Ruyter, who was fired immediately after the interview was aired, the insiders said.
It is understood that the NWC also committed to fully supporting party chairperson and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.
The two insiders said it was clear to those who attended the meeting that Mantashe was being targeted by opponents of the ANC and the government’s energy policy direction, by using the assumption that he is one of the crooked ministers mentioned in the interview.
One party insider said some NWC members reiterated the call for ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa to abide by the resolution taken at the December conference to move Eskom to the energy ministry.
“There is a well orchestrated agenda to target Mantashe [who] is being attacked from every direction. We know why and we know who is using the media and state institutions to target him,” one party leader said.
Ramaphosa also took the party line on De Ruyter’s disclosures on Tuesday, when he responded to media questions during the state visit by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni by calling on De Ruyter to take whatever information he might have to law enforcement agencies.
Ramaphosa said that although his government was “concerned” about De Ruyter’s allegations, he had immediately questioned why the former Eskom chief executive had not gone to the police or any other state agencies and laid charges.
Ramaphosa said the failure to do so had been a “missed opportunity” for De Ruyter to ensure that the information he had at his disposal was acted upon.
In the eNCA interview, De Ruyter said he “gave the message through, which by the way, I’m obliged by law” and that the response of the police “has been disappointing”.
De Ruyter also said Eskom had “significant difficulty energising senior levels of the SAPS [South African Police Service]” whose leadership, and that of the State Security Agency, he had met at Megawatt Park.
In an apparent reference to De Ruyter’s disclosure that he had informed cabinet ministers about the corruption at Eskom, Ramaphosa said that “when we just impart information to an individual, they do not have the wherewithal, power or muscle to investigate”.
“With the info he purports to have, there are institutions that are independent, where there will be no form of interference. Whatever malfeasance that he has knowledge of, those are the type of institutions that he should have trusted.”
Ramaphosa said he had a “great deal of faith and trust in those institutions and once the complaints are lodged, they have the full capacity to investigate”.
“I also call on him to come forward to those institutions and report whatever he knows so that the investigative process can commence,” he said.
This would ensure that “all of us are better informed, because without doing so, we are in a world of rumours, hearsay and then we start looking at each other with a great deal of suspicion”.
Mantashe, who belongs to the more dominant faction in the Ramaphosa camp, had been at loggerheads with De Ruyter and had publicly accused him of treason in the months leading to the chief executive — who was meant to leave at the end of March — being axed last week.
In the eNCA interview, De Ruyter said he had reported information about the involvement of a “high-level politician” in graft to “a minister”.
De Ruyter did not disclose who the minister or high level politician was, but Public Enterprise Minister Pravin Gordhan has since admitted that De Ruyter had come to him about certain individuals.
“And, as far as the law is concerned, or my understanding of the law is concerned, I can’t just arbitrarily point to someone and say that person is involved … either being corrupt or involved in corruption,” Gordhan said during an interview with Newzroom Afrika.
Mantashe and De Ruyter have been at loggerheads over the direction the power utility should be taking, with the minister set on a gradual phasing out of coal while the former Eskom boss insisted on a more aggressive move towards renewable energy.
Mantashe has publicly criticised De Ruyter on several occasions, which many feared would push the country into more trouble.
The Economic Freedom Fighters joined the conversation on Tuesday with its leader, Julius Malema, alleging that Mantashe was the minister at the centre of corruption at Eskom.
Malema said Eskom was run from Mantashe’s house.
“Apparently Gwede’s wife says this thing is run from her house. Gwede’s wife is embedded in Eskom, she has been doing business there and I will not be shocked if the minister they are referring to is Gwede. Gwede’s wife participates actively in the negotiation of business deals and Gwede is the one who made Cyril a president,” Malema said.
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