You may have seen Bianca Goodson (Smith) on TV or somewhere. She is the former Trillian CEO who testified how the company swindled Eskom and Transnet. As a result of her evidence at the Public Enterprises Committee’s inquiry into State capture, Eskom recovered a few millions from Trillian and others, all of whom were involved in fake contracts with Eskom.

She to Eskom's CEO, Andre de Ruyter, asking him to employ whistle-blowers and consider donating a fraction of the funds received through litigation to the whistle-blowers and formally and publicly demonstrate gratitude: “I implore you to make a difference and publicly support the whistle-blowers, like myself, who have helped Eskom.”

My friends of the Jewish faith have an expression – “to turn somebody away” – and it is short for “to turn somebody away empty handed” or, in other words, to return from an experience or event without having gained anything. This is exactly what Eskom has done. De Ruyter wrote to her, stating: “There is, unfortunately, no provision in South African law for whistle-blower compensation. As the law stands, and having regard to Eskom’s duty to act in accordance with applicable legislation, we unfortunately cannot pay you a reward or similar for the information which you disclosed.”

De Ruyter added: “It would be a great honour for us to invite you to address a group of our senior executives and managers, both for us to learn from your experience, but also to act as a potential launching pad for your venture, should you wish to proceed with it. As is customary with such invitations, there will be a modest speaker’s fee.”

So, not entirely quite empty handed. De Ruyter, as he always does, stays well within the law but, as we who skirt the law may say: “Eish!” Bianca G has no job now and may have a CV which will frighten off potential employers. At the same time, even if she did get a kickback from Eskom, she would be in the same position as she is now.

The situation as it is now is unfortunate. It is probably not widely known that Eskom is engaged in an underground war. On the one side are Eskom and the honest employees of the power utility and on the other are a shadowy gang, mostly composed of people aligned with organisations that used to supply Eskom with coal by road. At the height of the time, when Eskom was being run by Sinbad and the Forty Thieves, coal theft was rampant. Coal was driven into a power station and then out again and sold off. Fake deliveries were arranged. Many people were involved – from gate guards to power station managers. Mine employees were involved. Billions were stolen. Eskom fought back and throttled the losses.

Now, naturally, in South Africa, if you lose out on your income, even if it is illegal, you react. The gang did this by sabotaging rail supply networks, damaging coal conveyors and paying off power station managers to trip a generation units um, by accident. Eskom suspended two power station managers and brought in an army of German technicians to keep things above board. They are winning, but they have not won yet. Winning will involve rooting out the corrupt and ruthlessly self-interested criminals within its own ranks, no matter where they are. And here is the rub – how to find them? Industrial sabotage is very hard to detect. If a generating unit trips because of a fault, it’s simple enough to get it going again. But if it trips for no apparent reason, there is a big investigation. This is where a whistle-blower would come in real handy. Catching saboteurs would stop them doing their nasty work. But if you know your reward will be to address Eskom senior staff for a modest fee, following which you will be beaten up, you would probably just look the other way. Paying whistle-blowers would really help things. Eskom should think about it.