Eskom welcomes McKinsey apology to South Africans

Monday, 9 July 2018: Eskom welcomes the apology made by McKinsey & Company Global Managing Partner, Kevin Sneader to the people of South Africa at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) forum earlier today.

The apparent lapses in our own governance processes coupled with improprieties around - and mismanagement of – our procurement process led to a loss of trust in Eskom, its processes and its people. We have vast learnings to be taken out of this as we investigate what went wrong and as part of the recovery process. Whilst we are still in the process of strengthening our governance control systems, we continue to review our greater internal control environment to ensure that our key controls are not only adequately designed but are also effective.

The Eskom board and management welcome this milestone of recovering funds from McKinsey and commit to continue to deal decisively with improper and irregular contracts. To this end, Trillian, which was not party to the settlement, will be pursued for the recovery of the remainder of the payments through the legal review process together with the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).

Eskom Group Chief Executive Phakamani Hadebe says: “We would like to thank the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU), NDPP and McKinsey for their cooperation and confirm that we have received the payment of R902m. This payment goes a long way towards our quest to address the issues of funds lost and regaining the trust of our people. We commit ourselves to root out financial mismanagement and malfeasance and we will continue to work with the six regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies in addressing corruption, which are the National Treasury, Special Investigative Unit (SIU), SAPS, Hawks, NDPP and the Zondo Commission.”

Statement issued by Eskom, 9 July 2018