A damning Eskom report released by professional auditing firm Deloitte has found that the country’s mass blackouts and load shedding was engineered as part of a senior Eskom manager’s plan to get wealthy through irregular contracts.

This is the second such report released in as many weeks The Times reported, with law-firm Dentons’ report, released in early February, also pointing to the possibility of criminal activity related to the emergency procurement of “blackout” coal under the watch of lead procurement negotiator, Koos Jordaan.

“It would appear that Mr Jordaan, and other Eskom employees, circumvented the prescribed Eskom tender policy and procedure by appointing suppliers under the emergency mandate when, in fact, these services did not relate to the emergency period and should have been dealt with under the normal Eskom procurement policies and procedures,” the report said.

“From the interviews conducted, it appears that the 2008 emergency was not managed in the best interest of Eskom and resulted in fruitless and wasteful expenditure being incurred.”

Deloitte noted that Jordaan was given the task of  buying more than R10-billion worth of emergency coal during the 2008 power crisis, much of which he and other Eskom employees distributed to known associates through irregular contracts.

Jordaan resigned shortly after the investigation was launched and is currently the senior executive of a private coal company.