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It was a massive relief when Zondo Commission approached me - EOH CEO

Stephen van Coller's come clean about the dirty dealings at EOH before his tenure. He talks about uncovering the corruption.

The state capture commission heard testimony on Wednesday detailing dodgy dealings by IT giant EOH Holdings.

ENS Forensics director Stephen Powell said EOH paid ANC officials to get contracts.

The company also hid donations to the party by paying an intermediary company (Mfundi Mobile Networks) to pass the money on to the ANC.

It was the current Group CEO of EOH that appointed ENS Forensics to investigate the company's dealings with government bodies.

Stephen van Coller joined EOH as CEO in September 2018.

A screenshot of EOH chief executive Stephen van Coller testifying at the state capture commission on 23 November 2020. Picture: SABC Digital News/Youtube

He's called on corporate South Africa to play its part in ending the scourge of corruption.

[Corruption] steals the very essence of what a lot of people in this country fought for for so long. They fought for equality and corruption steals this equality from their fingertips.
Stephen van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

Bruce Whitfield interviews van Coller on The Money Show.

He talks about the extent of the corruption that was uncovered at EOH.

I had no idea that there was going to be systematic stealing from the company and systematic bribery and corruption...
Stephen van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

My biggest thing was, how do we save the 10,000 jobs at EOH? It's a great company that does great business and there were a few rogue employees who were intent on stealing as much money as they could!
Stephen Van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

There was not the proper governance and control that you would expect in a listed company, especially if you think a listed company is using pensioners' money to actually grow themselves...
Stephen van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

This allowed these people to steal money and nearly brought EOH to its knees.
Stephen van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

Van Coller says a new board and new management decided on complete transparency and helped turn the company around.

When the Zondo Commission approached him for specific information he was impressed by the background work it had already done.

They'd clearly done a lot of digging and it was very easy to say yes.
Stephen van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

We'd already given the information to the authorities - the Hawks, the SIU, the police force...
Stephen van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

For me it was just a massive relief because we had spent a lot of time... making sure we can get rid of the people, but we sat with this information for a year-and-a-half. It's quite a big weight on your shoulders.
Stephen van Coller, Group CEO - EOH

Listen to the fascinating interview in the audio below:

This article first appeared on 702 : It was a massive relief when Zondo Commission approached me - EOH CEO

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