Special Investigating Unit

The US company that designed the extremely flawed Kusile Power Station in Mpumalanga was given a blank cheque by Eskom, which it cashed in to score R12 billion.

Despite the fact that the engineering consulting firm Black & Veatch, which is situated in Kansas in the US, delivered shoddy work that continues to hobble Kusile’s performance, two senior Eskom executives told City Press last week that the company is still being paid hundreds of millions of rands.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has launched an investigation into irregularities around the construction of the Kusile, Medupi and Ingula power stations, which cost a combined R342 billion.

A senior law enforcement official told City Press: “The second phase of the SIU’s investigation is looking at the performance of, and payments made to the value of more than R139 billion, 11 identified contractors appointed by Eskom in respect of [the] power stations”.

At the same
Continue reading…

Fraud “on an enormous scale” has been uncovered in the land reform programme in which government officials handed out farms and millions in grants to beneficiaries who did not qualify.

The details are contained in a report by the Special Investigating Unit which recommends that 42 people, including the government officials, be prosecuted for fraud and corruption linked to land scams. Business Day obtained the report this week through a Promotion to Access to Information application. It was handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa in March 2018.

A report by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) recommends that 42 people – including government officials – be prosecuted for fraud and corruption linked to land reform programmes.

The report was handed over to President Ramaphosa in March 2018 but was only recently uncovered by BusinessDay after it submitted a Promotion to Access to Information Application (PAIA).

As part of the report, the
Continue reading…