Johannesburg – The spotlight on fraud at Eskom has shone brighter amid fresh allegations that the power utility was losing millions of rand through anomalies in the management of diesel procurement and storage contracts.
A whistleblower claims Eskom has a completed forensic audit that made adverse findings against some of the companies involved with such contracts.
In a statement on Tuesday, 22 April 2026, AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit revealed that it was representing the unnamed whistleblower.
The Unit stated that the matter concerns serious governance failures and corruption in the awarding and management of diesel procurement and storage contracts.
“The whistleblower has told the unit that Eskom is in possession of a completed forensic audit compiled by Itsamaya Holdings, presumably made adverse findings against some of the companies that were awarded the contract,” the statement said.
“The five companies awarded the contract to supply and store diesel for Eskom are Astron Energy, Lanele Group, African Shipping and Forwarding, Nutinox, and Severino Industries.”
Nutinox recently made headlines after the Johannesburg High Court declared invalid a R263-million tender to supply water tankers over a three-year period.
Lanele is currently in a legal dispute with Transnet that includes allegations of corruption and money laundering linked to the lease of Transnet property for the development of a fuel storage facility.
In a letter to Eskom, Advocate Gerrie Nel, head of AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, said the whistleblower alleges that the forensic report has been referred to a law firm to review it.
“We have become accustomed to the tendency of government and state entities to appoint and fund independent forensic investigators to produce reports, only to appoint lawyers then to set those reports aside when their findings are ‘inconvenient’ to powerful individuals,” stated Advocate Nel.
“In this instance, we are informed that the completed report, which focused on fuel procurement and may have made adverse findings, was referred to Centurion Legal Group.
“If true, such conduct undoubtedly amounts to wasteful expenditure, particularly where public funds are used to challenge a report commissioned by Eskom itself.”
Nel states that irregularities investigated include:
- relaxed bid criteria,
- prepayments to suppliers that lacked available capital,
- the acceptance of rebate arrangements that earned suppliers millions of rand at Eskom’s expense, and
- instances where Eskom provided fuel storage facilities to suppliers while also being billed for those same facilities
Eskom and the companies named were yet to respond to the allegations aired by the Unit.
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