Eishkom problems reveal: White people are still above the law in South Africa

By Baas Kruger

Yesterday Eskom released a statement, in which it claimed I was peddling lies and this statement was subsequently reported by various media publications as a fact. Unfortunately, I must now reveal more facts behind the "erroneous" payment to Quinton van der Burgh. Circumstances force me to respond lest I'm further accused of running smear campaigns that lack credibility and substance...

I must first place it on record that I'm part of a very large network of information sharing and this is the most vital aspect of my response. The matter of the R4 billion payment has been very tricky and difficult to trace over a lengthy period of time because of the secrecy by both government and Eskom officials, but we're thorough and accurate in our investigations. We cross reference and provide supporting proof.

In the first quarter of 2020, we received a tip off alerting us that Eskom had paid R5 billion to four white owned companies, and the names of those companies were also given to us by our sources. I'm not the one who broke the story; I did however, also post about this on my timeline to generate more publicity of the incident because public awareness assists to hold the untouchable to account given the mainstream media's reluctance to report.

Due to public backlash-the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordan eventually released a statement both confirming that Eskom had indeed overly paid four Eskom suppliers and the total amount was not R5 billion, but rather R4 billion. Our sources again flagged this and revealed to us that NO, in actual fact there was a specific amount of R5 billion paid to ONE particular company. 

So we again circulated this information. Even parliamentarians were confused about the amounts because when questioning Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyte, one MP first said it was R4 billion and another then corrected that and said it was R5 billion. However, it was now clear that it wasn't four companies, but one company that was paid R5 billion.

Andre refused to declare the name of the contractor that was paid R5 billion when questioned by parliamentarians, but instead he stated that there was a claim of R5 billion against Tergeta. 

Andre was in fact lying because Eskom's claim against Tergeta was actually R3.8 billion and it was not against Tergeta as a company, but rather a direct claim against the Gupta brothers, Matshela Koko and Brian Molefe for income derived from Eskom- of which this is being handled by the SIU and NPA. Andre has done nothing to recover the R5 billion payment made to Tergeta under the operating licence of Quinton van der Burgh. What's now clear is that Eskom lost a total of R9 billion in supposedly "mistaken" payments and non of this money has been recovered so far.

While Andre refused to name the contractor, we had already received information that this contractor was actually Tergeta, but the mainstream media tried to peddle misinformation that it was the Guptas who were the beneficiaries. But we pointed out that this R5 billion payment was made in 2020 while Tergeta was under business rescue and Quinton van der Burgh was the operating licence holder. 

Tergeta owns Optimum Coal Company which has a coal supply agreement of 5.5 million tones (1 million tonnes = 1 mega tonne) per year at R150 per tonne. In 2020, Andre had approved the increase of the coal purchase price from Optimum to R900 per tonne despite the National Energy Regulator recommending coal price rate of R350 per tonne. Remember how Brian Molefe had refused to raise Optimum's coal price from R150 to R550 when Glencore owned Optimum.

There's another strange aspect. Quinton had secured the Tergeta operating contract in 2018. Quinton had committed to pay off Tergeta's debts, which included R39 million owed to Transnet for coal freight services etc., and unpaid wages due to bank account closures of the Guptas, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal etc., so it was clear that Quinton had long term aspirations for Tergeta, however in 2021- Quinton suddenly abandoned Optimum to the mining company Glencore. 

Why would someone secure an operating licence of a multibillion company that held a lucrative Eskom coal supply agreement that's priced at nearly three times the recommended regulatory price, commit to pay all the company's debt then suddenly abandon the company. This doesn't make sense, unless Quinton had realised that the R5 billion payment was now even the subject of Parliamentary hearings, so he decided to run as far away from Optimum as possible.

Quinton Van Der Burgh, without a matric certificate, had established the Burgh Group in 2004, and within 10 years he became the youngest Dollar valued billionaire in SA by securing a contract to supply Eskom with 2,4 mega tonnes of coal per annum. 

Prior to supplying Eskom coal Quinton was appointed Marketing Division Head of Industrial corp Lezmin here in SA, then Managing Director of London based telecom corp Voda-Telle International, all without any academic credentials. Straight from high school, Quinton landed executive positions in an instant, rose to the top of the corporate sector both locally and globally. 

No one has ever questioned Quinton's academic credentials but rather the narrative is that "You can make it anywhere in life if you put your mind to it".

It's a given that this was the private sector, however we've seen a similar case of white privilege in government companies. For example, white man Nico Bezuidenhout was Mango Airways CEO from 2006 to 2015. Mango was part of SAA that was owned by the government. 

In SAA's annual financial statement of 2012, it was stated that Nico held an MBA degree, however it was eventually uncovered that Nico had no university degree at all and Nico himself confirmed this when he said it was not a secret that he had no degree, yet today Nico is the CEO of a private sector airline without any hassles. Nico had hiked  his own salary by 202% + R3.5 million in bonuses in 2011 alone while he was Mango Airlines CEO.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng's case study 

In October 2013, SABC settled out its R1 billion debt incurred during Adv Dali Mpofu's stint as SABC CEO. For financial year 2013/14, SABC posted a profit after tax of R559 million and kept SABC sustainable without bail outs, but now Hlaudi has been ordered by the courts to pay back a major portion of his salaries at SABC. It was completely ignored that Hlaudi studied equivalent NQFs at Wits and GIBS. Advocate Thuli Madonsela actually lied that Hlaudi misrepresented his qualifications because Hlaudi had worked for the SABC since 1995 and the SABC has always had his records wherein he has never claimed to have matric.

This is a clear display of double standards over Hlaudi and Nico, merely because the former is Black and Nico is white and there are countless other instances of white privilege brandished in shameless public display in this country.

Another case in point, is that the Competitions Act section 73(a) states that collision is a criminal offence with a prison sentence of 10 years, however this white woman Maria Ramos admitted to colluding in rigging the Rand, a criminal act that cost government's Public Investment Corporation (PIC) R99 billion in 2016, yet today Ramos is a board member at the very same parastatal. Does this make sense because from where I sit she's clearly above the law and rewarded for criminal activity.

Now there are further revelations from our sources- that Quinton paid a bribe of R14 million to the business rescue practitioners in order to secure a contract to operate Tergeta, however I will not look into the matter further because I've been warned against putting myself in immediate danger, because I'm now already a subject of Eskom boardroom talks after a direct confrontation of statements between myself and the Eskom CEO, with some already calling for a civil lawsuit against me. So for that reason I'd like to leave this matter.

My initial intention was not to engage in a war of words with Eskom but rather to state a simple fact based comparison of racial prejudice, however the nerve of Eskom execs to take a screenshot of my post and circulate it in their official communications calling me a liar, via mainstream media platforms has forced this response from me.

I made a comparison between Sibongile Mani and Quinton van der Burgh because the point I had sought to make is that the law enforcement agencies and courts in this country are very heavy handed when dealing with Black people, but try by all means to exonerate whites from accounting for their corporate crimes which are largely on a much bigger scale. 

The ease with which Andre De Ruyte lies is further testament that he's used to the white priviledge environment where there's little or no consequence for crimes committed by white people in this country.

The viral nature of my post shows that no matter how much some try to deny white privilege in this country by using mainstream media and government communication systems, the majority is gradually seeing past the deception and slowly and steadily a rebellion is brewing up.