‘The use of the race card has no place at Eskom!’: Internal probe clears Andre de Ruyter

Eskom said Advocate Ishmael Semenya SC rubbished the racism accusations levelled at Group Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter by former Chief Procurement Officer Solly Tshitangano, in a report on Wednesday, 2 June.

Tshitangano accused de Ruyter of being racist towards senior staff and giving white-owned companies preference over their black counterparts. Tshitangano even sent copies of the allegations – which included abuse of power, discrimination, poor government, irregular recruitment and unlawful procurement – to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Zondo Commission.

ESKOM BOARD SAYS NO RACISM DETECTED

Advocate Semenya was appointed by the Eskom Board to investigate the allegations made against Group Chief Executive de Ruyter by the former Chief Procurement Officer Tshitangano.

Semenya reportedly consulted 1107 pages of documents and spoke to witnesses before reaching his conclusion.

“Racism allegations about Eskom CEO rubbished by Senior Counsel finding,” said Eskom in a Board statement. “The use of the race card without foundation, merit or substance has no place at Eskom!”

According to the statement, Advocate Semenya said Tshitangano denied making the various allegations. He, however, never denied them publicly despite knowng that they were “wrong, egregious, false, baseless and lacking any substantiation.”

Semenya said he could find no substantiation for the allegation that de Ruyter conducted himself in a racist way.

The majority of the statement, presents Semenya as being befuddled by the unsubstantiated allegations – the senior counsel found no evidence to back up any of the claims made.

“Having had all the evidence, and considered all the documents, I could find no substantiation for the allegation that the GCE has conducted himself in any manner that would amount to racist practice,” said Semenya in his conclusion.

He added that he also found no evidence of poor governance, irregular procurement or recruitment. “I, accordingly, cannot find in Eskom, anyone guilty of any wrongdoing and would be making no recommendation to that effect,” said Semenya.

TSHITANGANO DISMISSED

The Board said it accepted Semenya’s report without hesitation and said that Tshitangano was found guilty of poor performance and dismissed in a separate disciplinary hearing, which was led by Advocate Cassim.

“The Board notes with serious concern the emerging pattern that when Eskom employees are charged with poor performance and or ill-discipline there is a tendency for them to go public with wild baseless claims that bring Eskom and its management into disrepute,” said the parastatal.

The energy supplier decried the “waste of time, money and resources” on taxpayers part because of the investigation and once again pledged its support for de Ruyter and his executive team.