JOHANNESBURG, June 2 (Reuters) – A senior lawyer appointed by the board of South Africa’s Eskom to look into allegations of racism levelled against the CEO of the state-owned power utility found no evidence to support the claims, the board said on Wednesday.

Senior advocate Ishmael Semenya found “no substantiation for the allegation that the Group Chief Executive has conducted himself in any manner that would amount to racist practise,” the board said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The allegation against CEO Andre de Ruyter was made by the company’s former Chief Procurement Officer Solly Tshitangano.

Following the allegations, Eskom’s board of directors in March instituted an inquiry to be led by Semenya.

De Ruyter was appointed by Eskom in November 2019 to turnaround the indebted utility, which was tarnished by years of corruption allegations and criticized by the public and industries alike for widespread power cuts.

Commenting on Semenya’s report, Eskom’s board said it had “no hesitation in accepting it in its entirety.” (Reporting by Promit Mukherjee Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Mark POtter)

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