Eskom Group CEO André De Ruyter will leave Eskom on 28 February 2023.
His ‘immediate’ departure was announced late on Wednesday night. The Eskom board decided at a special board meeting that De Ruyter would not serve out his notice period, which was to be until 31 March.
The board only started recruiting his successor two weeks ago, despite De Ruyter having submitted his resignation in December.
De Ruyter’s sudden departure follows an explosive interview with eNCA’s Annika Larsen, in which he directly fingered an ANC MP in the corruption at Eskom. His revelation prompted a stinging rebuke from public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, who slammed him for ‘meddling’ in politics instead of focusing on ending load-shedding.
CEOs of SOEs ‘should not be involved in open political debates or assertions and where they have political views’.
The DA has announced that it will launch a court application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act to obtain the identity of the ANC MP mentioned by De Ruyter.
De Ruyter confirmed views that the ANC was pulling out all the stops to fix Eskom in order to bolster its election prospects in 2024. He told Larsen the party was more interested in short-term political gain than long-term sustainability for the country.
In an interview with the Financial Mail last week, De Ruyter said that the lack of political support was at the heart of his decision to resign. He would have stayed on, but for Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s saying: ‘Eskom, by not attending to load-shedding, is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state’. De Ruyter told the Financial Mail that this ‘was the final straw’.