Eskom chief executive Dan Marokane says coal is important for the country to drive industrialisation. (Getty Images)
A decision to fund André de Ruyter’s controversial Eskom investigation has exposed cracks in South Africa’s business lobby, which has been at pains to convey that it is not meddling in state affairs.
A rift within the upper echelons of Business Unity South Africa (Busa) has been laid bare in a leaked report on the organisation’s meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa late last month.
In the report, Busa chief executive Cas Coovadia accuses the organisation’s president, Bonang Mohale, of throwing organised business under the bus by raising his concerns over its funding of the Eskom probe in front of Ramaphosa.
In the introduction to the report, which was sent to Busa’s board, Coovadia expresses his extreme concern about Mohale’s conduct and the reputational damage to the organisation — “as well as the role the president of Busa is playing”.
“I think this is a serious and unacceptable dereliction of his responsibilities as Busa president,” Coovadia later adds.
In late April, the business lobby was drawn into the political wrangling over Eskom when it emerged that Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) — a Busa member — had bankrolled an investigation into corruption at the power utility to the tune of R18 million.
The investigation was commissioned by Eskom’s then chief executive, De Ruyter, who hinted at its alleged findings in an explosive tell-all interview in February. Shortly after the interview, Eskom announced that De Ruyter, who was serving notice until the end of March, would depart with immediate effect.
Two months later, a News24 article cast doubt on the credibility of the investigation, which was conducted by a company owned by former police commissioner George Fivaz and allegedly contained untested claims concocted by Tony Oosthuizen — a key member of an apartheid-era secret military intelligence unit.
According to Coovadia’s report on Busa’s meeting with Ramaphosa in May, the president was the one who initially raised concerns about the Eskom investigation. Mohale, the report notes, responded by criticising BLSA’s decision to fund the investigation as well as the appointment of Fivaz instead of a black service provider.
Mohale, according to the report, said the BLSA funding bordered on business interfering in state-owned entities — a criticism lobbied at the organisation by others, including the Black Business Council.
In a display of unity on the matter, Coovadia and BLSA chief executive Busi Mavuso called a press briefing during which they both batted away allegations of overreach on the part of organised business.
“I guess maybe in some corners that might be viewed as interference, but from where we are sitting, it is not interference,” Mavuso said.
“And also because we understand that after the state capture project, we are sitting with a government and state-owned entities that were intentionally hollowed out. The hollowing out means that some of the capacity that these institutions require for them to do what is in the ordinary course of business they are not in a position to do.”
Mohale allegedly took his criticism of BLSA (an organisation he used to lead as its chief executive) one step further, raising its decision to re-admit state capture-implicated consulting firm Bain & Company as a member. Bain, which eventually withdrew its membership, allegedly aided the dismantling of the South African Revenue Service under the leadership of Tom Moyane.
According to Coovadia’s retelling, Mohale said serious intervention was needed to bring business back from the apex of corruption.
The report suggests Ramaphosa took to Mohale’s “straight talk”, which the president said was a step towards rebuilding trust between government and business. This trust, according to the report, was knocked by Busa’s conduct in the lead-up to the meeting — which was set up to discuss the concerns of organised business about the government’s position on Russia.
Ramaphosa, according to Coovadia’s report, said he had found Busa’s communication ahead of the meeting “belligerent and reflected a tone that implied we were interrogating them”. The presidency wanted the delegation limited to three people, but a seven-strong delegation arrived in Pretoria on the day of the meeting, delaying its start.
The president also raised that it had come to his attention that during a lunch or dinner with US treasury secretary Janet Yellen, a business leader asked that America fund organisations opposing the government.
In the conclusion of his report, Coovadia states that nothing of substance was raised by Busa at the meeting with the president. “We had no definitive response from them on the issues on our agenda and we were unable to raise these because of the way in which the meeting progressed,” the report reads.
“A critical concern I have is the conduct of the Busa president at the meeting. He had no mandate to respond as he did to the president complaining about the tone of our communication and to the president raising concerns about the Eskom funding.”
The Mail & Guardian understands that the report will be the topic of discussion at a Busa board meeting later this week. Neither Coovadia nor Mohale would comment on its content.
Mavuso was unable to respond to the M&G’s questions at the time of writing.
Ramaphosa and business have recently put on a united front, announcing last week that they were collaborating to “remove obstacles to inclusive economic growth and job creation”.