The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) welcomes the decision by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Ms Lynne Brown, to institute an investigation by the Special Investigative Unit into the Tegeta coal deal and all other Eskom procurement processes. This will go a long way to identify systemic challenges within Eskom and recommendations for improvements.

Today, Scopa had an engagement with Eskom that confirmed and agreed with the PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ findings on non-compliance. Scopa acknowledges that Eskom has addressed 45 of the 48 identified non-compliance findings and that the remaining three are to be identified before the end of the year. However, the Committee remains concerned about issues on non-compliance, particularly in such an important public utility as Eskom, which cannot afford to have lapses in governance.

Scopa is concerned about all four sampled mines, not only Tegeta. Those four mines were only samples, meaning that there could be weaknesses in a number of procurement practices.

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of Scopa, Mr Themba Godi