Eskom officials have refused State Security Agency’s vetting processes

A hundred Eskom senior officials have refused to undergo security vetting processes of the State Security Agency (SSA), that is meant to look into mismanagement reveals SSA Minister, Ayanda Dlodlo, during a meeting with parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).

Only 21 officials agreed to under-go a vetting process by SSA

The government had plans to clean up corruption and when asked what measures are in place for officials who didn’t cooperate, Dlodlo echoed that there weren’t any.

It is reported that only 21 of 121 officials have agreed to comply with the screening process, and Scopa intended to root out the main cause of government procurement spending that leads to billions annually, and Eskom’s continuous failure prevails despite government life-lines.

“You’ve got literally 100 people at Eskom who are saying to us ‘go jump off the nearest cliff”

According to Timeslive, the chairperson of Scopa, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, has stated that an oversight body would make Eskom executives to stop “undermining the SSA”, and simply under-go the vetting processes proposed by the government to weed out corruption within the embattled power-utility.

“You’ve got literally 100 people at Eskom who are saying to us ‘go jump off the nearest cliff’, does this bite or is it a cosmetic exercise? We will make sure that Eskom complies, there’s no two ways about it, it’s a non-negotiable.”

Chairperson of Scopa, Mkhuleko Hlengwa

Ramaphosa: “One of the greatest challenges to our economy is Eskom”

On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, that South Africa is working hard to gain private investment to grow the economy, and noted that one of government’s “greatest challenges” is Eskom.

“One of the greatest challenges to our economy is Eskom, which has huge debt, liquidity problems, and operational challenges. We have embarked on a process to strengthen governance, cut costs, improve revenue collection and increase energy availability.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa

The President is determined to root out all corruption in state-owned enterprises

The President further declared that government is looking to appoint a new CEO that will deal with the debt, operational aspects of the power utility and every technical aspect, and challenges of non-payment, including the R20 billion incurred in munipal debt

“A lot of money was siphoned out of state coffers through corrupt means. Some of those operations were sophisticated. Some of those included blue-chip companies of great world reputation, that is the shocking part.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa