André de Ruyter’s sudden resignation as Eskom Group CEO yesterday has exposed the simmering cracks about the direction of the country’s renewable energy programme within the South African business industry.
The business sector yesterday expressed mixed feelings about De Ruyter’s resignation as Eskom CEO, with De Ruyter, who has been under immense pressure due to the ongoing electricity crisis, submitted his resignation earlier this week to Eskom’s board of directors.
When he first took office in January, 2020 De Ruyter set himself a target of 18 months to end the country’s persistent load shedding and ramp up the utility’s maintenance programme.
His failure to meet his ambitious target and Eskom’s perilous challenges became the bane with which trade unions and some business organisations bashed him with.
The Black Business Council (BBC), one of the business formations who have been calling for De Ruyter’s head, welcomed his resignation.
BBC CEO Kganki Matabane said De Ruyter had not only been a liability to Eskom, but had cost South Africa’s economy dearly due to his failure to end power cuts.
“We have been calling for his resignation for months because the has cost the country R4 billion per day because of load shedding, mainly because of his incompetence,” Matabane said.
“We think Eskom needs a fixer. Eskom needs someone who will come there and say give me six months or 12 months to fix the current fleet of Eskom.
“So we need someone who will be able to fix Eskom and give South Africans the electricity that they deserve. We need a turnaround strategy to fix Eskom,” he said.
Matabane also slammed the massive renewable energy programme that Eskom undertook during De Ruyter’s tenure, saying that it was not the right approach to end the energy crisis.
“Renewable energy has been proved by Europe that it’s not going to solve load shedding. Load shedding can only be resolved by fixing the current Eskom fleet,” he said.
The Eskom board yesterday confirmed that there was no plan for its chairman, Mpho Makwana, to become the interim CEO.
It said that a comprehensive executive search would be conducted to find a suitably qualified candidate.
De Ruyter’s exit from Eskom leaves the power utility at its weakest, as its second senior executive, chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer, is retiring in April.
The power utility is currently struggling to keep the lights on after blowing more than R12 billion of its budget buying diesel this year, because of breakdowns at its ageing coal-fired power plants.
Currently, Eskom is engaging the National Treasury to fund an additional budget to buy diesel for emergency purposes.
Business Leadership South Africa’s CEO, Busi Mavuso, was “unavailable” to comment on De Ruyter’s resignation, a controversial move seeing how she was often so outspoken when she was an Eskom board member.
Mavuso resigned as a non-executive director and chairperson of the finance and investment sub-committee on Eskom’s board in September, following her harsh criticism of government policies.
Meanwhile, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) said De Ruyter’s resignation was a major blow for Eskom and the efforts to address the energy crisis.
Busa CEO Cas Coovadia commended De Ruyter “for the valiant efforts” he undertook under unbearable conditions in the national interest, and wished him all the best.
“While this is a blow, it is hardly surprising given the irresponsible comments by some in the government and some other sectors,” Coovadia said.
“The Eskom board must act with urgency to announce a replacement, even if on a temporary basis.
“The replacement must have the skills and capability to continue all efforts to reduce load shedding, accelerate the Eskom restructure, tackle ongoing corruption and sabotage, and work with business to diversify the energy generation and distribution environment, with the focus on cleaner energy,” Coovadia said.
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