Cape Town - ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has confirmed that they will take former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter to court to prove the allegations he made that the party is corrupt.
Mbalula said De Ruyter must defend his statements in court after an explosive interview with a broadcaster that the ANC was mired in graft allegations at Eskom.
He said the ANC had never sent anyone to steal at Eskom.
De Ruyter made startling allegations about massive corruption at Eskom and high-ranking politicians getting involved in the looting.
But Mbalula said De Ruyter could not drag the name of his party into corruption at the power utility.
The lawyers for the ANC will write to De Ruyter to prove those claims within seven to 10 days, he said.
Mbalula said if De Ruyter knew of any corruption at the utility he could go to law-enforcement agencies with the evidence.
The Hawks, Special Investigating Unit and the police have been probing corruption at Eskom and a number of people have been arrested, he said.
The ANC cannot fold its arms when it is under attack from the former CEO.
He said the ruling party would not wait for any initiative by Parliament, if any, to summon De Ruyter.
“We will challenge him for saying our party is corrupt and failing to prove how. I am not going to wait for some parliamentary committee to summon him. I am going to write to him through our lawyers. He must prove within seven to 10 days what he said. He is a lawyer, he can come. We will meet in court. I challenge him. He must name those people whom he said are corrupt and then he must deal with them himself. I am not here to safeguard ministers or whoever,” said Mbalula.
He said the party had been fighting corruption through the Zondo commission and had even backed investigations into these cases by injecting more money into law-enforcement agencies investigating them.
The ANC wanted to ensure that those who are implicated in corruption are dealt with.
Mbalula said the claims made by De Ruyter had damaged the image of the ANC.
He added that the allegations by De Ruyter could not go unchallenged.
The ANC has never sent anyone to go and steal at Eskom.
If he has evidence there were law-enforcement agencies empowered by the law to investigate corruption and malfeasance.
“If he has got anything that says the ANC is corrupt he must produce evidence. He does not. He refers to individuals who have made remarks. You know, what you say in your private conversation with whoever it cannot make evidence in a court of law that reading through the mind of this person he was saying this. I don’t know what the minister was trying to say when the minister says people must eat. It is him who was supposed to follow up and say minister your conversation was unethical,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula denied that he ever called De Ruyter to Luthuli House to come and account.
He accounts to Cabinet and that is where they met.
Other than Cabinet De Ruyter was accountable to various committees of Parliament where he made several appearances during his tenure.
Mbalula said despite being criticised during his term at Eskom, the ANC had supported him.
“The ANC says to you if you have found corruption perpetrated in its name by individuals bring them to book. The ANC is not corrupt. The ANC will not protect individuals. We will look at the law and our rights as a party because De Ruyter, what he has done cheaply, has dented our image and said the ANC wants to steal. That is the allegation and charge he has made, it’s not us. Did the ANC NEC meet and take a decision to go and loot at Eskom? If individuals go around bearing the label of the ANC as a party we don’t support that,” said Mbalula.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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