Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan accused its former Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter of spending too much time promoting a transition to green energy and paying inadequate attention to fixing its broken coal-burning plants.
De Ruyter spent three turbulent years at the helm of Eskom, during which he struggled to end rolling blackouts that have crippled the economy or get its shaky finances back on track. He abruptly left the company this week after giving a television interview in which he accused unidentified members of the governing African National Congress of stealing from the utility.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who has political oversight of Eskom, stood by De Ruyter’s campaign to fight graft and thanked him for his “sacrifice and resilience” after he first announced in December that he would resign after serving three-months’ notice. But De Ruyter’s disparaging remarks struck a nerve within the ANC, which has called on him to provide proof, and alienated his main political advocate.
“What Mr. De Ruyter effectively said was that all of us in government are idiots and that stirred the backlash,” Gordhan said in an interview. “He did not pay the attention to Eskom’s generation that he should have, and instead swanned around the world looking at renewables.”
De Ruyter attended United Nations climate change conferences and played a key role in helping South Africa secure $8.5 billion in funding from rich nations to help reduce it reliance coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, which is used to generate more than 80% of South Africa’s electricity.
With outages hitting unprecedented levels, De Ruyter failed to prioritise correctly and “did not sweat Eskom’s assets as he should have,” Gordhan said. “The main focus by government will now be to do just that.”
De Ruyter declined to comment.
Eskom chairman Mpho Makwana meanwhile also accused De Ruyter of behaving “reprehensibly” by going public with his allegations against the ANC, saying he never raised most of them with the utility”s board.
But lobby groups Business Unity South Africa and Business Leadership South Africa came to the former CEO’s defense, saying his accusations “require an urgent response from our government and appropriate agencies of state to ensure that the truth is uncovered and appropriate action taken.”
Eskom appointed Chief Financial Officer Calib Cassim as interim CEO on Friday. De Ruyter’s comments may make it difficult to attract the caliber of person needed to replace him on a permanent basis, “but that search is continuing,” Gordhan said.