Pretoria - Eskom has released the long-awaited Denton report, which examined the state of affairs at the power utility.
In 2015, the Eskom board commissioned multinational law firm Dentons to launch a fact finding inquiry, which looked into an array of challenges at the parastatal, including load shedding.
The investigation also looked into Eskom financials, the running of plants, delays in bringing new plants onto the grid, the high cost of primary energy, the integrity of the procurement processes and issues of compliance with Eskom policies.
“The new board decided to hire an independent international firm to help us get to the bottom of the challenges. The appointment of Dentons followed a standard procurement process. It has enough gravitas and resources to mobilise a suitable team,” Eskom chairman Ben Ngubane said on Tuesday.
As part of the investigation, four executives were suspended. These include then Chief Executive Officer Tsediso Matona, Financial Director Tsholofelo Molefe and Group Executives Dan Morokane and Matshela Koko.
“Their suspension was without prejudice and only done to create space for the inquiry… [The investigation was not] established to be accusatory and substantiate their suspension… It was only to help us turn around the utility and breathe new life into it,” Ngubane said.
The report, which was completed in July 2015, was not made public, sparking allegations that the move was taken to protect certain individuals.
Ngubane said the board took the decision not to release the report as it would aggravate the pressure on an already stressed business.
However, the board has now decided to make the report public to do away with innuendo and conjecture, especially from the media, Ngubane said.
"Contrary to what has been reported, the board did not at any stage interfere with the probe."
The findings of the report, Ngubane said, were not dissimilar to the board’s perceptions.
“Dentons helped us to confirm our own initial suspicions of the problem areas. This being a resourced expedition, we decided to stop the investigation in order to save resources, which could have otherwise been invested elsewhere. We didn’t curtail the investigation for notorious reasons, except for these we have mentioned.”
Eskom paid an amount of about R20 million, excluding VAT, for the investigation which made 18 recommendations.
By November, 13 of the 18 recommendations had been implemented, Ngubane said.
“The balance of these are at advanced stages of implementation.”
Dentons’ South African representative, Noor Kapid, said certain information in the report would require further investigation.
“What was presented to the board was sufficient to inform the turnaround strategy of Eskom,” he said.
Both Eskom and Dentons dismissed suggestions that there are two different versions of the report into the investigation. – SAnews.gov.za
