Premier Alan Winde has expressed his dismay at Andre de Ruyter’s immediate termination as Eskom’s Group Chief Executive.
“It is clear Mr. de Ruyter was forced out ahead of his resignation notice period because of his courage in speaking out about the endemic corruption that has been plaguing Eskom for decades under the ANC government,” the Premier said.
Mr. de Ruyter had his work cut out for him in saving the power utility from total collapse. Premier Winde said, “He did an exceptional job under extremely difficult circumstances, paying attention to Eskom’s maintenance programme, which I hope will be sustained even with his exit. Eskom must rescue what remains of its generation capacity from total collapse and a proactive and consistent maintenance plan is critical.”
“Corruption and political interference have been the cause of Eskom’s worrying deterioration over the years and we recognise the work that Mr. de Ruyter and the team at Eskom did in trying to address this,” Premier Winde continued, adding, “I appreciate Mr. De Ruyter’s willingness to meet with me regularly and his candour. He should be commended for his efforts in trying to stabilise the utility amid constant and counter-productive political interference. Under his leadership, he tried to introduce much-needed reforms to make Eskom sustainable and competitive”.
The Premier wishes Mr. de Ruyter well and thanked him for his service, not just to Eskom but the country too.
BACKGROUND:
Eskom announced that following the convening of a special board meeting on 22 February 2023, the Eskom board and de Ruyter reached mutual agreement to curtail his notice period to 28 February 2023.
The board further resolved that de Ruyter will not be required to serve the balance of his notice period but that he will be released from his position with immediate effect.
“Acting Group Chief Executive arrangements are being finalized with the shareholder minister and will be communicated shortly,” Eskom said.
De Ruyter’s expedited exit from Eskom follows an explosive interview with eNCA this week, where the now former chief executive blew the lid on corruption and political interference at the embattled power utility.
He made serious allegations of misconduct by unnamed senior government officials. He stated plainly that the governing African National Congress (ANC) were using the state-owned company as a “feeding trough”.
The minister in charge of Eskom, Pravin Gordhan, called the interview “unfortunate” and said de Ruyter should keep his political views private and instead focus on ending load shedding.
De Ruyter, however, made it clear in the interview that government meddling, poor policy management, and entrenched corruption among the political elite made this task impossible.
Senior government officials, including Mineral Resources and Energy minister Gwede Mantashe have adopted an outright antagonistic and alarmingly hostile position on the executive, going so far as to accuse him of high treason.
No evidence was given for the accusation, and, to date, Mantashe has not retracted the statement, nor have any government officials defended him.
De Ruyter had had evidently lost all political support in the position and has described the situation as untenable.
He has also had threats made on his life and was allegedly poisoned earlier this year. He tendered his resignation in December 2022 and was originally expected to vacate the role at the end of March 2023.
Eskom has put out an advert for the position, looking for someone with engineering skills and at least 15 years of experience in managing large companies.
