Limpopo, KZN ANC want André de Ruyter axed due to ‘dismal performance’ at Eskom

The ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo has called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Eskom CEO André de Ruyter.

This week ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo and Limpopo secretary Reuben Madadzhe  held a press briefing on Eskom's ongoing load-shedding.

The country has experienced continuous power cuts for months, which the embattled power utility has blamed on a shortage of generation capacity and breakdowns at power stations.

The ANC leaders said they had agreed De Ruyter should be fired for his “dismal performance” as CEO of the embattled power utility.

“We are told the problem is a shortage of coal, meaning they are stupidly not buying coal. If you go to Richards Bay you will see trucks and tonnes of coal exported to other countries such as Europe and China,” said Mtolo.

“The shortage of coal is not in the country. They stupidly don't buy coal and that is their own deficiency. Secondly, they say they buy substandard coal and put it into coal-fired plants and then they destroy their own system, which is their stupidity.

“Thirdly, they say they don't do quality routine maintenance. It is another stupidity. You know who is stupid? It is André de Ruyter.”

While Mtolo welcomed the appointment of a new Eskom board last month, he blamed De Ruyter for Eskom’s generation capacity challenges and breakdowns.

“The new board will fail because they have someone who doesn't know what he is doing at Eskom. The problem is André de Ruyter. They should have fired him.

"Once they fire De Ruyter, get someone who knows how to run this thing and deal with the three major factors that affect their system. Then we will have no problem,” said Mtolo.

On Thursday deputy president David Mabuza told the National Council of Provinces the executive's hands were tied when it came to firing De Ruyter.

He said the newly appointed Eskom board must assess the situation and place De Ruyter and his executive team on performance reviews. Then, should they feel he should be dismissed, it is their right to show him the door.

Last month De Ruyter said the ANC's “petty corruption” was to blame for generation capacity challenges and breakdowns. 

He said corruption was rampant at the utility, with syndicates operating within power stations.

“Eskom paid R80,000 for one knee guard, for example, due to the petty corruption that takes place,” he said at the News24 On the Record summit.

“There is a notion, somehow, that corruption ended when the Guptas departed Lanseria Airport. That is not true. Corruption is still very much a part, unfortunately, of the organisation and manifests itself in quite interesting ways,” he said. 

“You will issue a tender to improve control, for example, on warehousing by implementing bar coding. Bar coding is 1980s technology and is simple to make work. Then you go to the market and responses come back, and there is not a single tender that meets the qualifications set out.”

TimesLIVE conducted a poll asking readers if the Eskom board should be fired because of load-shedding. 

Most voters (66%) said government is to blame for load-shedding and not the Eskom board, 22% said the board should be fired because the crisis has worsened under its watch and 13% said the board should not be fired because it has a plan and the country needs to be patient. 

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