The privately commissioned report into corruption at Eskom is a distraction.

This criticism from African People’s Convention leader, Themba Godi, comes as the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) is demanding to be supplied with a copy of the report.

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter says that he based his allegations of government-level corruption at the utility on the report’s findings. But no one has seen a copy.

Godi says that Eskom has managers, auditors, and its own forensic reports, which can present an adequate picture of the level of irregularities at the utility.

He was speaking as SCOPA has hauled members from the security cluster, Eskom board, and government to provide accounts on the measures taken to crack down on corruption at the utility.

Godi also highlighted the failures of de Ruyter and Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan who could not make any improvements at Eskom during their respective tenures.

His comments come as Eskom anticipates that Stage 5 will be the highest level of load shedding by August.

In a briefing, Eskom’s managers however noted that there is a likelihood that Stage 8 load shedding will be implemented if the condition of the grid worsens.