Energy expert Ted Blom told Business Day TV there are way over 10,000 corrupted employees at Eskom, and the company’s management does not have the balls to stand up to them.
Blom said Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has no clue how big the problem is. The stats Gordhan quoted of 3,000 Eskom staff members doing business with the utility is only the tip of the Iceberg, he said.
Quoted by MyBroadband.co.za, Blom said some of the thieving employees at Eskom were “sitting at the top floor”.
He has highlighted his concerns in discussions with Eskom and can provide evidence of wrongdoing at the company. However, Eskom is not interested.
“I don’t think the management of Eskom has the guts to sort the problem out. I think that is where the problem lies,” Blom said.
He added that Eskom is worse off today than what it was a year ago under the corrupt management at the time.
Alice in Wonderland meeting
Commenting on the recent briefing by Gordhan and the Eskom board about load-shedding, Blom said they have no idea what is going on.
“I call it the Alice in Wonderland meeting. The Department of Public Enterprises and the Eskom board took control a year ago and they are still wondering what is going on,” Blom said.
“They are now discovering new things, and are putting up pictures of power stations and boilers as if it is the first time they have seen something like that.”
Blom said Gordhan and the Eskom board should be providing South Africans with answers on how they will fix Eskom.
“They have been there for 15 months and had many opportunities to do an audit and turnaround plan. They have even had teams of experts who helped them, but we still do not have answers,” said Blom.
