Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Samantha Graham-Maré MP.
Barely 24 hours after President Cyril Ramaphosa controversially pointed out, in a reply to DA parliamentary question, that he doesn’t know and neither does he plan to find out which Ministers were involved in Eskom corruption, court documents in a case brought by the NPA has revealed that the ANC received R202 000 from an Eskom subcontractor that allegedly defrauded Eskom.
In a case brought by the NPA against a number of people and organisations that have ostensibly defrauded Eskom of more than half a billion rand, allegations are that the ANC received a cash payment from Impulse Supertrans, an Eskom sub-contractor. And although this case is currently under litigation, the DA calls on Ramaphosa and the ANC to pay back the R202 000 that they have appeared to have stolen from the people of South Africa.
This latest revelation is the clearest evidence yet that the ANC is part of a criminal network that benefited directly from Eskom corruption. It explains why Ramaphosa, members of his Cabinet and ANC MPs in Parliament have gone to extra lengths to either deny the existence of corruption at Eskom or shut down calls for a parliamentary investigation into the issue.
ANC involvement in corruption goes beyond the case at hand and it is precisely why the DA submitted a motion in Parliament calling for the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry to investigate allegations of corruption that were raised by former Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter. Obviously scared of what such an inquiry would uncover, the ANC used its majority in Parliament to reject the DA’s motion. Based on the latest revelations of cash gifts from a dodgy contractor at Eskom, it is evident that the ANC caucus have shirked their oversight role in order to cover up ANC corruption at Eskom.
With André de Ruyter due to appear before SCOPA next week, the DA will ensure that he is given the opportunity to expose the rot that has brought Eskom to its knees and brought the South African economy to the brink of implosion. This is the only form of accountability that Parliament will have on the matter, given that the new Minister of Electricity, along with many other state functions, have been centralised into the Presidency for which there is no parliamentary committee and thus no accountability to the public.
Depending on the outcome of the SCOPA hearing, the DA stands ready to take action and ensure that all those implicated in corruption at Eskom are held to account. It cannot be business as usual when a sitting President refuses to take action against members of his Cabinet implicated in corruption.