Eskom Forensic Manager was threatened by assassin                         

Dorothy Mmushi ran a forensic investigation consultancy that was contracted to conduct fraud investigations at South Africa’s corruption riddled power utility, Eskom.

During the course of her work as a consultant, Dorothy identified criminal syndicates that were defrauding the company of billions of rand by colluding with officials to submit fraudulent, massively inflated invoices for services that were not even rendered. She successfully reported her findings to law enforcement authorities..

After Mmushi completed her assignment as a consultant, she joined Eskom to lead a team of Senior Forensic Advisors. One of her first cases at Eskom was uncovering how the utility had paid just over R60,000 (3500 USD) for a pair of knee guards you could pick up at a hardware store for R200. In some of the instances payments were made with no services or goods delivered.

However, when Dorothy began red-flagging suppliers who were involved in fraudulent transactions, she made many enemies. Members of the syndicates she had previously exposed retaliated.

Among the acts of intimidation Mmushi experienced was a criminal complaint laid against by a supplier she had previously investigated, which led to her being arrested and charged with extortion. In 2022 she wrote to the CEO and chairman of Eskom to complain that she was being harassed by detectives who were investigating a bogus complaint. Mmushi also alerted them to the criminal cartels operating at Eskom. She received no response.

At this point, Mmushi also began to receive death threats, which she reported to Management at Eskom. Eskom’s management made no effort to have the threats investigated or to provide Mmushi with the protection she needed.

After her arrest, Mmushi was suspended from her job for seven months, pending the outcome of an investigation. Mmushi’s manager told her that her suspension was not related to her arrest but refused to disclose why she was being investigated. Mmushi says she was not interviewed at all throughout her suspension period.

When Mmushi returned to work she discovered that, during the time of her suspension, her work laptop had been accessed by a third party. In the meantime, suppliers she suspected of defrauding Eskom had been unblocked and payments were being made to them again. Mmushi reported this, both internally at Eskom and to the police. She further reported the incidents to the Chairperson of the Audit and Risk Committee, the Acting CEO and the COO. At this point she also laid a formal employment grievance with Eskom about her suspension, but nothing was done.

The criminal case wrongly opened against Mmushi eventually came to nothing, after the prosecuting authority withdrew the bogus extortion charges. Mmushi has since opened a civil claim against the police for unlawful arrest, and lodged a complaint with the ombudsman for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (the Hawks Ombudsman). She says her civil claim is currently at the discovery stage.

The findings of the Office of the DPCI Judge indicate that further investigations should be conducted by the South Africa Police Service against the members of the DPCI responsible for Mmushi’s arrest.

In July 2023, shortly before her contract at Eskom was due to expire, events took an even more sinister turn. Mmushi later told City Press newspaper that she received a call from a hitman who said members of a criminal cartel working with her manager had hired him to kill her for R400,000 (20,000 USD).

In the recording, which she supplied to the newspaper, the hitman can be heard describing Mmushi’s movements in detail over the preceding two months, including in the parking lot at the Eskom headquarters in Sunninghill. He told her he’d already been paid R50,000 for the hit and would receive the balance once he’d completed the job. He then offered to kill the people who hired him if she would pay him more money.

Instead Mmushi reported the incident at Eskom and to the police, requesting personal protection:

“I was scared and shocked, but they did nothing about it,” she says. “I am expected to come to work the following day, after receiving this call from someone who says they’ve been paid to pop my head. I was left with no option but to have this matter exposed in the media as Eskom offered me no protection.”

The man who called Mmushi was subsequently identified as a dangerous career criminal and hitman. He was arrested and now in jail for his involvement in a cash-in-transit heist. “This made it more hair raising for me,” she says.

Mmushi was not perturbed when her contract at Eskom came to an end. “I just wanted to move on, and put a stop to the nightmare.” 

The police and Eskom say they are investigating who else might be involved in the plot to kill Mmushi. According to her, progress on the investigation has been extremely slow.

“It’s frustrating” she says. “It shows you there’s no urgency to pursue certain matters. If you are not high up in the food chain, nobody cares.”

Mmushi’s experiences at the power utility have left her feeling vulnerable and isolated. 

“It has changed the way I live. I don’t socialise much anymore, and I have to watch my back,” she says.

Mmushi also had to foot the bill for extra security measures and legal costs as a result of her ordeal. She now prefers to take assignments outside South Africa “all in the name of keeping safe.”

“This means I am away from my family a lot. It feels like the fraudsters have won.”

None of the suppliers or officials who have been linked through forensic investigation with acts of fraud against Eskom have been arrested.

Dorothy Mmushi shares the Blueprint Africa Whistleblowing Prize for 2024.