In September 2017, Parliament’s Public Enterprises Committee will begin its inquiry into alleged manifestations of state capture in three of South Africa’s state owned companies (SOCs): Eskom, Transnet, and Denel. The Committee will be under considerable pressure to drive a targeted investigation that ultimately brings to light the information necessary to more fully understand the manner in which the governance of key institutions may have been repurposed to facilitate large-scale corruption by a politically connected elite.

The authors of this reference book have set out to provide an independent, accessible, concise, and factbased account of some, but not all, of the alleged instances of governance failure and corruption at the largest SOC - Eskom. The authors hope that a streamlined and objective account of the deeply complex challenges facing the power utility will be of assistance to the Committee, as well as members of the general public.

Beyond shedding light on specific instances of wrongdoing – whether through dereliction of duty or overt corruption, it is hoped that the Committee will also probe higher level structural and governance questions in order to make recommendations around strengthening and reforming institutions in the future.

This booklet has been authored by Professor Anton Eberhard and Catrina Godinho of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Research support was provided by Lauren Hermanus and Jesse Burton. It is part of the State Capacity Research Project - a group of academics from research institutions at the Universities of Stellenbosch, Witwatersrand, Cape Town and Johannesburg.