Johannesburg - Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter is planning to leave the country to live overseas, citing safety reasons, after spilling the beans about alleged corruption at the power utility.
He said leaving South Africa would be good for his health.
De Ruyter’s life has once again come under attack. The police confirmed they were investigating a case of attempted murder after he was allegedly poisoned in December last year.
It was reported that De Ruyter survived an alleged attempt on his life only a day after he had tendered his resignation in December.
On Wednesday, Eskom announced in a statement that De Ruyter was leaving the power utility with immediate effect following a meeting that night with the board.
De Ruyter resigned as Eskom chief executive in December; he was expected to vacate office at the end of March, but the board gave him marching orders.
The power utility has also come out, saying that De Ruyter brought Eskom into disrepute when he spoke in an interview with one of the broadcasters.
In the interview, which aired on Tuesday night, De Ruyter said there was rampant corruption at the ailing power utility and undisclosed ministers were interfering with operations.
De Ruyter also said the undisclosed leaders from the ANC were aware of corruption that was happening at Eskom and also that the utility served as the ANC’s “feeding trough”.
He also claimed criminal syndicates in Mpumalanga were stealing about R1 billion a month from Eskom and nothing was being done about it.
Some reports suggest that De Ruyter is the 10th Eskom CEO in 13 years. He joined the power utility in 2019, shortly after President Cyril Ramaphosa ascended to the throne, where he boldly spoke about the “new dawn”.
He went as far as telling South Africans to “Thuma mina”, loosely translated as “send me”, referring to fighting corruption.
However, political analysts said today that Ramaphosa had been politically exposed.
Following the revelations by De Ruyter, he named four criminal cartels that he said were sophisticated, well-organised, and well armed.
“People get assassinated in Mpumalanga,” said De Ruyter.
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said De Ruyter had been fishing for sympathy.
Seepe said that was one way of diverting attention from his glaring failure to turn Eskom around.
“He leaves Eskom in a terrible and worse state than he found it,” Seepe said.
“His outrageous claims regarding corruption at Eskom are self-serving. He had a duty to present evidence to law-enforcement agencies,” he said.
Seepe said this is the same person that the ANC higher-ups were willing to defend despite his demonstrable incompetence.
“We have lost more money since he took over than what was lost through state capture. His comments about corruption are also telling, as they coincide with Ramaphosa’s tenure as head of state. He has put the nail in the coffin of Mr Clean.
“It is interesting how he was summarily dismissed after the ANC honchos had sworn by him. His departure is not a loss to the country. But it is telling. Black South Africans do not have that option. They have to stay put and suffer the consequences of his incompetence,” Seepe said.
Sandile Swana, another political analyst, told one of the broadcasters that the issues that led to the termination of his contract were corruption by members of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.
“At a time when Ramaphosa was claiming that from 2017 until now, he is going to stem out corruption, and Eskom has been pinpointed as the central theatre of corruption, the main set of corruption by the previous chairperson, the late Jabu Mabuza.
“So Ramaphosa, politically, is very exposed now relative to these revelations by De Ruyter,” Swana said.
The country is expecting an electricity minister and a Cabinet reshuffle.
Swana gave an example, saying, “If Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan or Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe are the two ministers involved, either one made the verbal statement that people should be allowed to eat. Let’s say Pravin — I am just making an example — and then Gwede is the one who’s actually eating. Then both of them are implicated in this, and therefore, Ramaphosa would then want to say, can we get someone who is neutral and not tainted by this whole thing to be the electricity minister? To the extent that you want to keep both of them in his Cabinet for other reasons, political reasons and self-preservation.”
At a press conference yesterday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalulla slammed De Ruyter’s claims that the ANC was corrupt.
Mbalula said the statements De Ruyter made about the ANC were huge, and they were not only going to be addressed by his statement at the press conference.
“We must and we will as the ANC take action. That man, De Ruyter, must prove what he said about us, because as the SG, I never said any individual in the name of the ANC to go and have tea with De Ruyter and in their lousy talk, they talk about whatever they talk about. In the records of the ANC, there is no such thing; he must prove that the ANC he is talking about is corrupt,” he said.
ATM said De Ruyter must be summoned to appear before Parliament to spill the beans.
“De Ruyter has to disclose who this senior minister is, who he kept reporting these transgressions to without taking any action to respond to his revelations. De Ruyter has a case to answer for his failure to report such corruption in terms of Section 34 of Precca (Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act),” said ATM president Vuyo Zungula.
Cope said De Ruyter had a responsibility to expose the Cabinet members.
“De Ruyter has a constitutional duty to expose all those he knows who are involved in corruption and sabotage at Eskom. We also expect him to go to the police and lay criminal charges against these thieves,” said Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem.
The Star