The political party African Security Congress (ASC) handed over a memorandum to Eskom on Tuesday regarding the award of a tender of R500 million to the Fidelity Security group.
The handover took place at Eskom’s Megawatt Park in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The ASC is a political party that looks after the interests of private security guards, especially in the public sector.
In the memorandum that RNews has seen, the party demands answers about the R500 million that is believed to have been spent on security services from Fidelity over three months after an alleged closed tender process.
The services involve the appointment of hundreds of security guards at Eskom’s power stations, which was done after threats of sabotage.
“According to reported estimates, it has been quoted that each security guard is compensated R150 000 to perform their duties for the duration of the three months. We are certain that workers received less than a fraction of that amount,” says the party in the memorandum.
ASC blames this on Eskom’s former chief executive, André de Ruyter, and the head of security at Eskom, Karen Pillay.
The party accuses De Ruyter and Pillay of disregarding normal tender processes to get the deal approved under the guise of emergency procurement.
“After emergency procurement processes, there was no requirement to have an open and competitive tender process. A single company, Fidelity, was reportedly handpicked.
“This comes in light of a lack of response by law enforcement agencies and other state organs to hold Eskom and its accomplices responsible for the wasteful expenditure of half a billion rand of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
According to the party, it learned of “this reckless decision” through an apparently unreliable intelligence report – approved and funded by major organisations, including Business Leadership South Africa, whose CEO Busisiwe Mavuso was an Eskom board member at the time.
“Several organizations have tried to enter into discussions with Eskom to get a response that justifies a disregard of the Public Finance Management Act and other regulatory legislation. However, no satisfactory response has emerged.”
In the memorandum, the party demands that –
- the circumstances that led to the award of the tender are independently investigated;
- law enforcement agencies are provided with information that can assist in criminal investigations;
- Pillay be suspended pending the investigation with immediate effect for her alleged involvement in the award of the tender;
- De Ruyter is summoned from Germany to account for his alleged part in the tender process;
- Jan Oberholzer, the former chief operating officer of Eskom, is also held accountable for the approval of the controversial tender;
- Mavuso accounts for her involvement in the fundraising of millions of rand for an intelligence report which was later allegedly used to justify the awarding of the giant tender; and
- the contract’s details are fully disclosed.
ACS gave Eskom 14 days to respond to the memorandum.
“If they don’t do this, more members of civil society organizations will be involved to make Eskom ungovernable,” says the memorandum.
According to Daphne Mokwena, spokesperson for Eskom, Eskom is still studying the memorandum and the company will try to respond to it before the set time.
