Investigator who probed Eskom corruption claims apologises to SCOPA for no-shows
After three no-shows, the retired police brigadier who dealt with corruption matters at Eskom has finally appeared in Parliament on Wednesday.
Jap Burger has come out guns blazing, accusing National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola of misrepresenting why since June he has refused to appear before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA).
Since April, the committee has been probing corruption claims made by former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter in a television interview on eNCA.
Burger on Wednesday told the committee there’s been no real will from the police to deal with organized crime at the power utility and that the National Security Council had been virtually absent in dealing with corruption at Eskom.
Retired Brigadier Jap Burger has apologised to parliamentarians, saying his previous refusals to appear before them was not due to arrogance.
Last month, Parliament issued a subpoena to force him to appear on 15 November after it had previously heard that he was afraid to give testimony in public.
“It wasn’t a position of arrogance but a position of I’m working from a contaminated space. Even if you look at the address by the national commissioner, he misrepresented me, that’s why I wrote the letter to the Speaker.”
Burger, who’s worked in police anti-corruption units, including the Hawks, for more than two decades was scathing in his assessment of how corruption at Eskom was being treated.
“Have all departments or all functions of government done their work to protect the entity? What I found, Mr Chair, is no.”
Burger says he felt obligated to protect witnesses and whistleblowers, which contributed to his reluctance to appear in Parliament.
-EWN
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