Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has slammed the ANC for seemingly ‘shoving’ former Eskom Group Chief Executive André de Ruyter out before his resignation notice period had ended.
On Wednesday, Eskom announced that the Eskom board and De Ruyter had agreed to cut De Ruyter's notice period to February 28, following a special board meeting.
Eskom said the board had resolved that De Ruyter would not be required to serve the balance of his notice period, which would have ended next month.
The embattled power utility also revealed that acting GCE arrangements were in the process of being finalised with the shareholder minister and would be communicated to the public soon.
However, in a fevered statement, Winde expressed his pique at the sudden news, saying it was clear that De Ruyter had been 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.
Winde said: “Mr De Ruyter had his work cut out for him in saving the power utility from total collapse, and 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.
“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. I appreciate Mr De Ruyter’s willingness to meet with me regularly and his candour,” he said.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has lashed out at De Ruyter and said the comments of Mr De Ruyter are completely unacceptable.
“His opportunistic venture into the political arena has unmasked his regressive political and ideological agenda. If he wants to become a political player and undermine the efforts of patriotic South Africans - then let him say so publicly and declare for all to know who he is aligned with.”
"The question of whether the national energy utility is state owned or not was never part of his contract. It is a forte of the governing party and its ideological perspective on how to best ensure equitable access to electricity as a public good.
“We will not back down on this. We also reject his unfortunate, irresponsible, and baseless claims of alleged political meddling and corruption at the embattled power utility,” Mbalula said.
“He is now trying to shift the blame from his own short comings to other people. We must ask why he is only raising these allegations when he leaves Eskom. If Mr De Ruyter has any evidence to the contrary, he is duty bound to present it.
“We commend the tough actions taken by the Saps, Hawks, SIU and other law enforcement agencies to bring charges against corrupt persons inside and outside Eskom. They must be furnished with information to do their job.”
Despite his dismay over De Ruyter’s immediate departure, Winde issued advice to Eskom, saying the power utility should immediately begin working on rescuing what remains of its generation capacity, to prevent it from collapsing entirely.
He said Eskom should implement a critical proactive and consistent maintenance plan.
“Mr De Ruyter 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.
“I wish Mr De Ruyter well and thank him for his service, not just to Eskom but the country as well,” Winde said.
nomalanga.tshuma@inl.co.za