Cape Town - A senior police official in the Hawks who is investigating corruption and cartels looting the power utility has failed to appear before Parliament’s finance watchdog, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), because he fears for his life.
A brigadier Burger was due to appear with national police commissioner Lt.-Gen. Fannie Masemola before Scopa to make a presentation on allegations made by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter about looting.
Burger was said to have met De Ruyter when he gave him information on theft and corruption at Eskom.
The brigadier also met with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security adviser Sydney Mufamadi.
Masemola told Scopa members on Wednesday that Burger could not attend the meeting because of security concerns.
He was concerned about what would happen to his life after the meeting.
His fears were about the consequences once he appeared in parliament, said Masemola.
He said he preferred if the meeting could be held in-camera.
“As I said earlier, I did engage brigadier Burger about him coming. When he raised the concerns, that's when I engaged the committee secretariat. The fact that he said he does not feel comfortable in coming, I said no, the committee said you must come and give them the reasons why you would not appear,” said Masemola.
“The main issue is after he presents here, what are the implications for himself and his life,” he said.
ANC MP Bheki Hadebe said they should not compromise on the safety of officials who want to protect themselves against criminals.
He said people have been killed due to corruption in the country.
If Burger wanted protection and to be shielded from potential attackers all measures must be taken.
Another ANC MP Sakhumzi Somyo said if a senior police officer was afraid, this paints a picture about the state of affairs at Eskom.
“What kind of a message it sends out there in terms of the police and Eskom matters. What does it say that a brigadier has advised his national commissioner about coming here. What does the national commissioner think about that? Whoever is watching this debate must be saying Eskom matters are deep and heavy,” said Somyo.
Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said this explains the rot at Eskom.
He said they would not allow the safety of the police official to be compromised.
When the issue around his safety was raised, he thought about the murder of senior official in Cape Town Charl Kinnear.
He said the brigadier's fears were real and should be treated as such.
Hlengwa said he will meet with parliament’s legal advisers in order to meet with the police official on how they will handle his submission in parliament.
One of the options that he has proposed of having an in-camera hearing would be looked into and the legal advisers in parliament will provide an opinion.
Hlengwa said he would also choose some members of Scopa to join him in a meeting with Burger to hear about his concerns.
Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale said they will fight corruption at Eskom irrespective of who was involved.
Masemola said the Eskom corruption was toxic, with many cartels operating there.
He said they have even arrested their own members involved in Eskom criminal activities.
“Yes, the Eskom space is very toxic. The members that I send there, from SAPS itself, we arrested our own members after we established these committees,” said Masemola.
He said they have got the Hawks, SAPS and Investigating Directorate investigating corruption at Eskom.
Mathale said they will get to the bottom of corruption at Eskom.
“We are doing our best. We are certain that the electricity challenge at Eskom will be resolved. Government is determined to do that. We are part of the processes to deal with this. The national commissioner did indicate that we are just a component of the approach in dealing with the issues.
“The issues of corruption at Eskom we are dealing with them and we have been dealing with them before this matter came to the surface and we will continue to do so. The issues that we are raising as a department, we are not going to be an obstacle to you getting the information to enable you to do so.
“We can also assure you, irrespective of who is involved in these issues, the law will take its course. The police will not be selective in their work and there won’t be interferences from anybody for them to do what is necessary to deal with the challenges faced by our country,” said Mathale.
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