No substance for racism allegations against Eskom boss Andre de Ruyter — Advocate
The report from Senior Counsel Ishmael Semenya regarding his investigation into the allegations of racism at Eskom has found that there was no substance to the allegations, the power utility announced on Wednesday.
“Use of the race card without foundation, merit or substance has no place at Eskom,” the company stated.
Semenya was called on to investigate allegations brought by former Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Solly Tshitangano (pictured) against Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter.
The allegations included abuse of power, racial discrimination, poor governance, irregular recruitment, irregular staff appointments, and unlawful procurement.
For his investigation, Semenya considered 1,107 pages of documents, Eskom said.
According to Eskom, Semenya’s report stated that Tshitangano denied making these allegations.
Quoting the report, Eskom said that Tshitangano knew that the allegations were wrong, egregious, false, baseless, and lacking any substantiation.
Despite this, Tshitangano refused to publicly deny them.
“As a senior executive at Eskom, the CPO must have known that the nature of these allegations would impair the dignity of the [Group Chief Executive], malign the entire board of Eskom and imperil the corporate standing of Eskom, which is the biggest state-owned company. The allegations could potentially harm Eskom’s financial status,” Semenya was quoted as saying.
Semenya could find no substantiation for the allegation that Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter conducted himself in any manner that would amount to racist practice, Eskom said.
The power utility said that Semenya concluded that he could not find anyone guilty of wrongdoing in Eskom.
Tshitangano was fired last week after a separate disciplinary process found him guilty of gross misconduct and breach of duties and responsibilities during his tenure at the utility.
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