De Ruyter says his position is untenable

Eskom group CEO Andre de Ruyter, who this week announced his resignation at the end of March next year, said on Thursday he was stepping down to make way for someone else because he no longer regarded his position as tenable.

His comments came against a background of comments made by mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe that Eskom under De Ruyter’s watch was guilty of sabotage and of “agitating for the overthrow of the state” in allowing such high levels of load-shedding to afflict the country.  

He has also likened De Ruyter to a “policeman” who is focused on “chasing criminals” without a grasp of the power utility’s challenges. He should, the minister said, be replaced with someone who has the technical capabilities to turn Eskom around. 

Mantashe’s comments were made ahead of the ANC elective conference which gets under way at Nasrec on Friday where load-shedding and De Ruyter’s leadership of Eskom are sure to come up.

At a media briefing also addressed by Eskom chairperson Mpho Makwana and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, De Ruyter said the position of CEO was dependent on broader political support in the political economy. That support was “absolutely critical to enabling the success of Eskom going forward.”

“Given recent media reports I am unfortunately currently in a position where I do not regard that position as being tenable and I have accordingly decided to step back to afford the shareholder and the board the opportunity to appoint a candidate to the position of group chief executive who may be better suited, may be better equipped for the strategic and operational objectives at hand.”

He stressed that he was not abandoning ship as he intended to stay on until the end of March whereas his contractual notice period is only two months. This would enable him to ensure a handover to his successor.

De Ruyter said he had no particular plans in the pipeline but wanted to take some time off and spend more time with his family who have not seen much of him over the last three years. There were no job offers that prompted his resignation.

“It has been an absolute honour and a privilege to lead an organisation of the size and importance of Eskom. I am really gratified that I was entrusted with this opportunity. I am obviously disappointed that I could not achieve all of the objectives that I had set myself,” De Ruyter said, adding that Eskom’s operational and financial challenges as well as crime and corruption were well known.

Questioned about Mantashe’s comments, Gordhan replied with an “emphatic no” that he regarded De Ruyter as a traitor and guilty of trying to overthrow the state. He said it was “absolutely unfair and uncalled for to use that kind of language for someone who tries their best to get Eskom out of the mess that it was in.” The comments, he said, were unhelpful, though he conceded the high level of frustration in the country about load-shedding.

Gordhan said De Ruyter had made a remarkable difference and given his all to Eskom but more needed to be done to improve the utility’s performance. He stressed the mess in Eskom didn’t start in 2019 but dated long before that when the wrong decisions were made.

Gordhan took over the question asked of Makwana as to whether he regarded De Ruyter as a traitor.

“I don’t think it is in my purview to determine whether Mr De Ruyter is a traitor or not,” Makwana said. “That question must rightly be tabled to where those statements would have been uttered. We worked well with Mr de Ruyter and continue to work well with him, and we have found him as a board to be responsive to our requests, and as and when we need things done, they have been done within the deadlines we have set. I don’t think I am qualified to answer whether Mr de Ruyter is a traitor or not.”

Makwana said the Eskom board was engaging with stakeholders on a draft turnaround plan intended to ameliorate load-shedding with the aim of getting the buy-in of key stakeholders. 

De Ruyter gave an update on the fire at unit 6 of the Matla power station which had broken out outside the boiler, destroying cabling. There was no indication yet of any foul play, but the matter was under investigation. He said the damage was not severe or structural, but could not give a date for the return to service of the unit.

Director-general in the presidency and head of the National Energy Crisis Committee Phindile Baleni said De Ruyter’s resignation had been done in a very judicious way as he had allowed enough time to appoint a successor.  “We’ve seen a lot of people come and go.”

With Denene Erasmus

ensorl@businesslive.co.za