By Prince Mupiri
JOHANNESBURG, April 26 — In January 2021, News24 was granted access to a large cache of records concerning misconduct at Eskom, South Africa’s national electricity provider. Alongside their reporting partners, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, News24 began the daunting task of reviewing the thousands of internal Eskom memos, communications, Excel spreadsheets, contracts, and project management records. The aim was to uncover the extent of the corruption within the organization and the consequences of this corruption on the country’s power supply.
After three months of investigative work, the first story based on the documents was published. The Eskom Files was a collection of investigative news stories that revealed the scope, breadth, and depth of corruption within Eskom. The documents exposed complex networks that benefited themselves and their allies for years by being close to firm resources and having influence in the private sector. As a result of these networks, the development and operationalization of Kusile, a power station project, were delayed by several years, and the issue of load shedding, which was already severe, became fatal.
The investigative reporting was not limited to the documents provided but also included first-hand reporting from sources cultivated by News24, trips to locations and sites mentioned in the records, and independent validation of the information. The reports exposed the corruption that had been allowed to develop within Eskom and the government, leading to inefficiencies that had a significant impact on every South African.
The Eskom Files revealed how the public had been paying the price for corruption and inefficiency, which had been allowed to develop over many years. Eskom and the government’s failure to address the corruption had led to significant consequences for the country’s power supply, with load shedding becoming a regular occurrence. The investigative reporting by News24 and its partners shone a light on the issue and demonstrated the importance of investigative journalism in holding organizations and governments accountable for their actions.
Source: News24
