Eskom welcomes arrest of alleged fraudsters

Eskom has welcomed the arrest of four people alleged to have defrauded the State power utility during State capture.

The four appeared in the Randburg Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday on charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering, and are currently out on bail.

“Eskom welcomes the arrests of two former employees of former contractor ABB Group (ABB), as well as their spouses for corruption linked to Eskom contracts worth R2.2 billion. The four were arrested yesterday… for corruption that defrauded Eskom in a contract awarded to ABB in 2015.

“Eskom congratulates the NPA’s [National Prosecuting Authority] Investigative Directorate on the arrests in this case and pledges to do everything in its power to assist the investigations to bring about successful prosecutions. Eskom also hopes this is just the beginning and that more arrests will follow in this matter and in the more than 100 other criminal cases lodged with law enforcement agencies over the years,” the power utility said in a statement.

According to the NPA, the four suspects allegedly cashed in on “gratifications estimated at R8.6 million… by inflating prices” and exerting influence over the “awarding of over R549.6 million of the Eskom-ABB contract” for the benefit of a subcontractor – Impulse – between 2015 and 2017.

The electricity supplier acknowledged that for years, Eskom was the scene of major State capture.

“Eskom was one of the major crime scenes, as evidenced by the findings of the Commission of Enquiry on State Capture, and this was one of the seminal matters on which the State Capture Report recommended persecutions.

“The law enforcement system needs to show that the time for criminal impunity and theft that continue to rob the people of South Africa of services they have so dearly paid for is up,” the statement read.

According to Eskom, the contractor – ABB – has already paid back some of the money it had received irregularly from the power utility.

“During December 2020, ABB South Africa agreed to pay Eskom R1.577 billion of funds it had irregularly paid after it voluntarily disclosed collusion with certain Eskom officials to irregularly award it R2.2 billion for a control and instrumentation contract for Kusile power station in 2015,” Eskom said.