'I challenge De Ruyter to go to cops': Ramaphosa joins ANC's call

28 February 2023 - 20:58
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President Cyril Ramaphosa has broken his silence over Andre de Ruyter's explosive allegations about senior government officials' involvement in criminality at Eskom.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has broken his silence over Andre de Ruyter's explosive allegations about senior government officials' involvement in criminality at Eskom.
Image: Supplied/ GCIS

A man of former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter’s stature should have trusted law enforcement agencies to investigate maleficence at the ailing power utility.

This is President Cyril Ramaphosa’s view on the explosive allegations of gross corruption at Eskom laid bare by De Ruyter in a TV interview last week.

“We were most concerned about his utterances and what immediately came to mind to me was that André de Ruyter being the person at the level of group chief executive officer, should have gone to any of our institutions with the information that he purports to have because those are institutions that are independent, where there won’t be any form of interference, diversion, blockage or even any form of subterfuge,” said Ramaphosa.


He was responding to media questions during a state visit by his Ugandan counterpart, President Yoweri Museveni, at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday.

The president is the latest to add his voice to the growing calls for De Ruyter to come clean.

This comes after an interview De Ruyter had with eNCA in which he laid bare the inner workings at Eskom and criminality involving senior ANC members.

The ruling party has challenged De Ruyter to provide proof to back up his allegations, failing which, it says, it will take legal action.

Ramaphosa said De Ruyter should report “whatever malfeasance” that he says he has knowledge of.

“Those are the types of institutions that he should have trusted, as I do. I have a great deal of faith and trust in those institutions and once the complaint is lodged with those, they are the ones that have the full are capability and the muscle and the wherewithal to investigate.

“At times when we just impart information to an individual, they do not have the wherewithal, power or muscle to investigate. So in his case it’s a missed opportunity and I also call on him to come forward to those institutions and report whatever he knows so that the investigative process can commence.

“So that all of us are better informed because, without doing so, we are then in a world of rumours and hearsay, and we start looking at each other with a great deal of suspicion.


“I do firmly believe that anyone who has such information should go to the entities and institutions that deal with these issues and have investigative authority and power.

“And believe you me, those institutions are very thorough, can be intrusive and can look at everything because that is how they are wired and geared up so that they advance and strengthen our democracy.”


Ramaphosa said a fusion centre has been created to deal with all of these matters.

“Once it gets to the fusion centre there is just no way to escape accountability and that is where he (De Ruyter) should be going. I challenge him  to go forward there and lay the information to these institutions so that the country can be at peace and know exactly what he was talking about,” said Ramaphosa.



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