Numsa happy to see Eskom's De Ruyter go

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) says it is overjoyed at media reports that Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has resigned.

The union described De Ruyter as the "worst CEO in the history of Eskom’s existence".

The union said when De Ruyter started at Eskom, he claimed he could end load-shedding in 18 months.

“Unfortunately, we have experienced the worst load-shedding in the history of Eskom,” the union said.

It said the economy was affected and patients were dying in hospitals and clinics because of the persistent load-shedding.

“In the manufacturing sector, we noted that many companies are retrenching and cite persistent load-shedding as part of the reason for shutting down and retrenching workers. As of September this year, the economy has lost a minimum of R20bn, and it was only going to get worse if he continued in his role.

“His resignation is way overdue, and there has been catastrophic consequences for all of us because of his pathetic leadership,” Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said.

Jim said whoever replaced De Ruyter must have an engineering background and also work for Eskom so that person can understand all the technical aspects of the business.

“Eskom is not like any other company. You need a technical expert who, at the very least, must understand the difference between good quality coal and bad quality coal. This was a concept which was way over De Ruyter’s head.”

Jim said the person must be able to instil confidence about the ability to resolve the crisis.

“Furthermore, if we really want to see a difference at Eskom and at all other state-owned entities, [public enterprises minister] Pravin Gordhan must do the nation a favour and also resign."

Jim said he must be replaced by someone who will not frequently violate good governance processes by interfering in the day-to-day running of state-owned entities.

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