Eskom has not given credible reasons for keeping an allegedly damning report about corruption within its ranks under wraps.
That’s the view of the Democratic Alliance which is submitting an application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act to get a copy of the report by US multinational law firm Dentons.
BusinessLIVE reported on Monday that Eskom’s board had been sitting on the report‚ which cost millions of rand to produce‚ for the past two years.
“The report has been kept in a vault since its completion in July 2015‚ fuelling suspicions of a cover-up of corruption by the utility’s leaders.”
DA MP Natasha Mazzone said the report was commissioned in 2015 to investigate the reasons behind widespread load shedding‚ which had crippled the country‚ and the delays in building infrastructure.
“Its findings include extensive corruption‚ implicating now acting CEO‚ Matshela Koko‚” she said in a statement on Monday.
“No credible reason for keeping the report secret has been given‚” said Mazzone. “Board chairperson and spin doctor extraordinaire‚ Dr Ben Ngubane‚ claims the report has not been released because it is being used to rectify the identified problems at Eskom. Yet‚ Minister (of public enterprises‚ Lynn) Browne has directly contradicted this claim by saying that the report‚ which took three months to compile‚ was not thorough enough.”
BusinessLIVE said the secrecy around the report raised concerns that the parastatal was still being managed by the same people who are accused of corruption.