De Ruyter ready to appear before parliamentary committee:
Former Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter has agreed to appear before parliament’s watchdog standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to discuss the allegations of corruption he raised in an explosive television interview in February.
The committee said on Thursday it extended an invitation to De Ruyter on 17 March and he has accepted, through his lawyers.
“Mr De Ruyter indicated that he will present a written submission to the committee on the issues he has raised, and is agreeable to appearing before it at a date to be determined by the committee,” Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said in a statement.
The committee believed it was important to have discussions with De Ruyter on the allegations of mafia-style corruption, theft, maladministration, sabotage, lack of consequence management and other financial irregularities at Eskom, Hlengwa added.
De Ruyter was released from his duties at Eskom one month before the end of his notice period after he told eNCA that a senior, unnamed, ANC politician was involved in corruption at the company, and that he had told a cabinet minister of his suspicions.
He also answered in the affirmative when asked whether he believed that the party served as a “feeding trough” for the ANC.
It hit a nerve with the ruling party, which has since said it wants to sue De Ruyter for defamation, but was struggling to establish his whereabouts to serve summons.
The Scopa invitation was sent after ANC MP Bheki Radebe urged the committee to call De Ruyter to explain his allegations.
Last week, the party voted down a proposal by the Democratic Alliance to establish an ad hoc committee to investigate wrongdoing in Eskom.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has confirmed that he was the cabinet member to whom De Ruyter reported that he believed someone in the top echelons of the ANC had a hand in corruption at the power utility.
In the debate in the National Assembly a fortnight ago, opposition leader John Steenhuisen took advantage of parliamentary privilege and said that the minister De Ruyter had referred to was former deputy president David Mabuza.
GIZ Call for Solutions: Innovative entities for the piloting of a DSM solution:
The aim is to identify and pilot a DSM solution in collaboration with GIZ SAGEN and the public sector
The South African-German Energy Programme (SAGEN) is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), Eskom and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
The Technology Innovation component under SAGEN aims at strengthening capacities for developing technology innovations that contribute to an improved system integration of variable renewable energy (vRE) and to the clean energy transition in the broader sense.
The programme seeks to promote and pilot technology innovations in cooperation between the private sector, research institutions and established players (in particular utilities) in the energy sector.
In this context, GIZ SAGEN seeks to pilot an innovative solution from Tech Start-ups or innovative companies, the successful bidder will participate in a specially designed “Innovation Programme” to further develop and pilot their innovative technology solution, the proposed solutions should be at least TRL 6 (Technology Readiness Level), with the solution prototype system verified and can be tested in an operational environment. The bidder will be supported in piloting their solution in collaboration with an implementing partner from the public sector.
GIZ invites eligible and professional entities with local presence in South Africa, to participate in this tender. Tender documents are available for downloading until 11 April 2023 at the following link:
https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/121020.html
Your proposal must be submitted to ZA_Quotation@giz.de by 18 April 2023. Please quote reference 83433801 when submitting the documentation. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Reserve Bank hikes repo rate 50 basis points, despite poor growth:
The South African Reserve Bank has raised the cost of borrowing by 50 basis points in the hope of bringing down inflation. This is despite the monetary policy committee (MPC) once again clipping its 2023 growth forecast for the country.
Thursday’s increase brings the repo rate to 7.75%. Two of the committee’s five members preferred a 25 basis point hike, which was expected by markets ahead of this week’s MPC meeting.
Asked about the pain the 50 basis point hike stands to inflict, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago emphasised the deleterious effect of inflation on the pockets of the most vulnerable.
“The problem is inflation is eating their income. And if no one does anything about inflation eating their incomes, they are going to be in an even worse position,” he said. “And that institution in society tasked with protecting those incomes against the ravages of inflation is the central bank and through our policy tools, blunt as they might be.”
The Reserve Bank has lifted rates by a cumulative 425 basis points since November 2021 after it slashed the repo to 3.5% in the wake of Covid-19’s economic onslaught. The repo rate is now 125 basis points higher than it was prior to the pandemic.
Higher interest rates will throw cold water on the country’s already slow economic growth. In January, the MPC delivered a dire prognosis of the health of the economy, which the committee forecast would grow only 0.3% in 2023 as households and businesses reel from load-shedding.
On Thursday, the MPC revised its GDP forecast lower to 0.2%, reiterating that the energy crisis stands to shave two percentage points from growth this year. The MPC’s forecast is still higher, although only slightly, than that of the International Monetary Fund, which expects the country’s economy to grow 0.1% in 2023.
But the MPC did have a more positive outlook on growth in the coming years, forecasting that the economy will expand by 1% in 2024 (up from the 0.7% expected in January) and by 1.1% in 2025 (up from 1%).
“Economic growth has been volatile for some time and prospects for growth appear even more uncertain than normal,” the MPC’s statement noted, adding that improvements in logistics and a sustained reduction in load-shedding would lift growth.
Meanwhile, the MPC has revised domestic headline inflation higher for 2023 to 6%, up from the 5.4% previously forecast. Data released last week showed that domestic inflation had risen slightly in February, from 6.9% to 7% year-on-year, on the back of higher food prices.
The committee upped its local food price inflation forecast again, despite global food prices falling in dollar terms, due in part to the lagged effect of the weaker exchange rate. The rand has generally weakened over the past year and currency markets are expected to remain volatile, the MPC noted.
Food price inflation is now expected to be 9.9% in 2023 (up from 7.3%). But food and fuel prices are expected to ease, resulting in headline inflation falling to 4.9% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025
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