LETTER: André de Ruyter a must-read

As a retired newspaper editor from the Eastern Cape, our cradle of corruption, I thought nothing would surprise me about the ANC. But I reckoned without the extent of the sleaze and graft at Eskom revealed meticulously by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter in his book Truth to Power.

It’s a must-read for all South Africans — the biggest WTF since Jacques Pauw’s All the President’s Men. The Annika Larsen TV interview, I see now, was just a taster.

What enhances the impact of the book is his matter-of-fact, detailed, blow-by-blow account of events, which, he said in an interview last week, he recorded from his daily notes every Sunday morning at home, which explains the clarity of his recollections.

Woven into the narrative are his intelligent, perceptive, often amusing, observations and comments on the ANC, the president (“a genial country club manager”), his ministers, and the self-destructive nature of ANC economic policy.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how well written it is. He knew he didn’t need to resort to hyperbole to shock. The facts speak for themselves. 

Like the brazen, shameless plundering of Tutuka power station, whose former station manager is still on gardening leave, pulling a fat salary three years after he was exposed. Such is the protection our misguided labour laws afford wrongdoers who immediately deploy the Stalingrad defence.

To Gwede Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan and all De Ruyter’s fulminating denigrators in the ANC, it must be particularly galling to read in the first sentence that the man who steered De Ruyter to Eskom is their own maverick, Tito Mboweni.

I take hope, if that’s possible after what follows, from De Ruyter’s dedication at the book’s beginning: “To all the honest and hard-working men and women of Eskom”, some of whom he names and praises. Sterkte to them. Thank you to Andre.

Ric Wilson
Simon’s Town