R3 Billion ‘Advance Payments’ to Eskom Look like Corruption

Statement by Kevin Mileham MP – DA Spokesperson on Electricity and Energy:

The Democratic Alliance has requested an urgent joint hearing of SCOPA and the Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy into Eskom’s diesel procurement under Tender MWP2197GX.

This has all the warning lights of Tegeta 2.0: massive Eskom procurement, politically sensitive fuel supply, favoured suppliers, unexplained payments, weak controls, and taxpayers left carrying the risk.

The tender was a five-year diesel supply framework with a notional value of approximately R21 billion.

This diesel feeds Eskom’s open-cycle gas turbines, the emergency generation backstop used when the grid is under pressure.

In plain terms: when Eskom runs out of electricity, this is the fuel it burns to keep the lights on.

Read this article: Open Cycle Gas Turbine Usage – with Key finding as follows: Eskom OCGT was dispatched heavily in May–Jul 2025 (winter onset, 397 GWh across 3 months) then almost completely stood down from August 2025 onwards — dropping to near-zero from Aug 2025 through Feb 2026. IPP OCGT ran continuously throughout at a near-constant ~100 MW baseload, suggesting a contracted minimum dispatch obligation. Eskom OCGT has resumed modest dispatch from March 2026 as winter approaches again.

The documents before us raise serious prima facie concerns, including allegations that approximately R3 billion in advance payments flowed to selected suppliers;

• that payment terms may have been applied inconsistently;
• that cheaper or compliant suppliers may have been sidelined;
• that storage requirements were not properly enforced; and
• that SAP transaction records require urgent forensic preservation and explanation.

Parliament cannot allow this to be buried in another sanitised Eskom PowerPoint.

We need a full, evidence-led hearing that follows four trails:

• the money trail,
• the document trail,
• the decision trail and
• the accountability trail.

Eskom must answer:

1. Who authorised payments before verified delivery?
2. Were those payments lawful and Treasury-compliant?
3. Why were some suppliers allegedly treated more favourably than others?
4. Were cheaper suppliers pushed aside?
5. Were SAP records reversed, deleted, blocked or cleared irregularly?
6. And who has been suspended, charged, referred for prosecution, or sued to recover public money?

The DA is calling for Eskom’s Board, executives, procurement officials, internal forensic teams, the Minister of Electricity, National Treasury, the Auditor-General, the SIU, the Hawks and the NPA to appear before Parliament.

We are also calling for the full tender file, forensic reports, contracts, payment records, SAP audit trail, storage agreements, Board minutes and correspondence with enforcement agencies to be handed over before the hearing.

South Africans have already paid for Eskom’s failures through blackouts, higher tariffs and lost economic growth.

They must not be forced to pay again for Eskom diesel deals cooked in the dark.

Eskom must open the books. Parliament must follow the money.