Paul Hoffman SC is a director of Accountability Now.

Has Fikile Mbalula perhaps forgotten that the Zondo Commission names and shames 45 Eskom-related persons for their involvement in the type of irregularities of which André de Ruyter complains?

In the same week that the Spanish Embassy in South Africa cosponsored a "Forum on Disinformation and Cybersecurity in Africa", an illustration of the phenomena under discussion at the forum unfolded dramatically in the media, especially in cyberspace, after the former CEO of Eskom André de Ruyter gave "that interview" to eNCA's shocked and horrified Annika Larsen.

He laid out in measured terms the criminality that has so infested Eskom that its ability to keep the lights on at all, let alone some of the time, is now more questionable than ever.

The information supplied by De Ruyter during the interview is not new to the seasoned observers of Eskom: his estimate that the value of the looting by the cadres runs to about R1-billion a month is just an estimate and may be on the conservative side.

Thirty years in power is only 360 months, but the hole in which Eskom's finances have landed is far deeper than R360-billion. The sabotage,...