Eskom is unlikely to find a replacement for Andre de Ruyter before his three-month notice period ends. (Michele Spatari/Bloomberg)
Zizi Kodwa, the deputy minister responsible for state security, on Wednesday said that Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter had not been fully vetted because he had not provided all of the information requested by the State Security Agency (SSA).
“We were promised by Mr de Ruyter that by the beginning of June he will give us the outstanding documents,” Kodwa told the parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).
He said the SSA was being blamed for the vetting backlog of state officials, but state owned-entities had been presenting half-truths to Scopa.
The backlog was caused by the applicants, said Kodwa.
“A lot of work has been done, but we do reach a lot of cul-de-sacs and difficulties to carry out the mandate in terms of the oversight.”
The Mail & Guardian contacted De Ruyter’s office and is awaiting a response.
Scopa member Bheki Hadebe, responding to Kodwa’s reference to De Ruyter, said he expected an executive to lead by example.
But DA MP and Scopa committee member Alfred Lees said the SSA’s response to “drop names”, such as that of De Ruyter, was “out of order”. The validity of the claim had to be determined, he said.
Scopa has for years been scrutinising the SSA’s vetting of public officials. In 2019, the security agency painted a grim picture of its capacity to investigate the trustworthiness of senior government officials and executives at state-owned entities.
That year, the SSA briefed Scopa about the progress in vetting public officials after the parliamentary committee demanded that senior government officials and executives involved in procurement spending, be vetted. Scopa was told that out of 121 senior employees at Eskom, only 21 had been vetted.
The SSA appeared before Scopa on Wednesday after Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele (under which the SSA falls) declined an invitation for Kodwa to report to the committee on 16 November.
Scopa unanimously decided at its previous meeting to invoke its right to summon the SSA to report to parliament on its vetting processes at state-owned enterprises in the event that it failed to appear before the committee.
The SSA is awaiting legal opinion on the matter and is due to appear before Scopa again on 24 January next year.