On December 11, local time, the South African government announced that the South African National Electric Power Company (Eskom) and the South African Special Investigation Bureau (SIU) have reached an agreement with Swedish Swiss ABB Group, and Swedish Swiss ABB Group will repay the additional R1.56 billion (about 674 million yuan) collected in the country's Kusile power plant project due to corruption.
In 2015, South African National Electric Power Company and Swedish Swiss ABB Group signed an agreement in the country's Kusile power plant project and paid Swedish Swiss ABB Group a contract amount of 2.2 billion. After investigation, it was found that some officials of the South African National Electric Power Company at that time used illegal and fraudulent means to induce the company to pay a large amount of money far exceeding the actual contract amount to the Swedish Swiss ABB Group. To avoid lengthy and long lawsuits, Sweden-Swiss ABB Group said it would return R1.56 billion (about RMB 674 million) collected due to corruption. The non-State Electric Power Corporation (Eskom) and the South African Special Investigation Agency (SIU) considered the amount returned to be fair and therefore revoked subsequent legal actions.
South African National Electric Power Company (Eskom) is the 10 largest state-owned enterprises in South Africa and has been plagued by corruption scandals in recent years. The company often loses power due to lack of operating funds, causing huge losses to the South African economy. After Ramaphosa was elected as President of South Africa, in February 2019, the State of the Union address of South Africa mentioned many times that the South African National Power Company needed to be broken and then established, and then reorganized the company's management. (Reporter Zhou Tao of the General Station)
(Editor Liu Zhe)
