EFF wants Eskom CEO, COO and board axed immediately

The EFF has demanded the immediate firing of Eskom's entire board, including CEO Andre de Ruyter and COO Jan Oberholzer.

The party said the board was incompetent and useless in the wake of escalating load-shedding stages.

“The incompetence and arrogance of Eskom executives has plunged SA into a perpetual and unwarranted darkness that is killing businesses and livelihoods. The collapse of Eskom and the failure to prove dependable and consistent energy supply are meant to render the country's electricity utility redundant and useless.”

The red berets said they had warned against the “immoral and dishonest” intended handover of SA's energy generation sovereignty to the “greedy establishment that will influence all spheres of life, including the country's political future”.

It said the crisis facing the power utility is man-made.

“Eskom has also failed to put in place practical steps to resolve the energy crisis.”

It said it had warned against appointing De Ruyter and Oberholzer and wanted them gone.

“We call for the firing of the board, CEO, and COO, knowing very well [President] Cyril Ramaphosa's cowardice will not allow him to take decisive steps. 

“The EFF warns that failure to fire Eskom's board, CEO, and COO will require us to take more radical steps to ensure competent, dependable and fit people are in charge of Eskom to resolve the energy crisis and bring an end to blackouts that have become a permanent feature of our lives.”

One SA Movement leader Mmusi Maimane said Ramaphosa failed to live up to his promise of there being “light at the end of the tunnel”. 

“We were told it was a new dawn but it was in fact the beginning of a long sunset — one with no lighting,” he said. 

“There is no light at the end of the tunnel. We are descending further into an abyss of darkness.”

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