Call for Eskom CEO’s removal

JOHANNESBURG - Politicians and business leaders are calling for the removal of Eskom Chief Executive Officer (CEO) André de Ruyter as the power utility fails to keep the lights on.

Many of those who spoke to The Sunday Independent this week said the embattled CEO was still in charge and earning more than R7 million per annum because of ‘white privilege’. They said De Ruyter and his Chief Operating Officer (COO), Jan Oberholzer, had to go.

Senior business leaders and politicians told The Sunday Independent that De Ruyter and Oberholzer ‘were given all the exceptional support they needed, but failed to stabilise the power utility or the grid’.

“The gentlemen were hired to make sure that South Africa (SA) has electricity, but we are constantly plunged into the darkness. Why are they still there? The situation is worse. This year we are facing the highest load shedding in the history of Eskom,” Black Business Council CEO Kganki Matabane said. Matabane added that the Eskom Board had to go with De Ruyter and Oberholzer because ‘they failed to hold these executives accountable for their failures’.

Leadership

“Eskom’s problem is poor leadership. The power utility has enough electricity to supply SA without any load shedding, but the current executive doesn’t know what they are doing. De Ruyter and Oberholzer are still keeping their jobs because of their white skins and white privilege. There is no other reason (why) they are still there,” he said.

The sentiments come as the country struggles with stage six load shedding that has brought the economy and everyday life to a standstill. The power utility said it had been battling capacity constraints that were expected to continue throughout the week. Last week, generation units at the Camden, Kriel, Majuba and Matla power stations were taken off-line for repairs. From Sunday, the country will be at stage three until Eskom manages to stabilise its stations.

Eskom said the load shedding over the weekend was to replenish the pumped storage-dam levels, which had been used over the past week.

It further indicated that it was experiencing constraints from its diesel suppliers that were affecting the availability of bulk diesel for the Ankerlig and Gourikwa open-cycle gas turbines, which had a combined capacity of 2 000MW. With Eskom’s many challenges, Matabane said the government was ‘holding the country hostage’ by keeping De Ruyter and Oberholzer in their jobs. It was sitting aside and watching as they killed a lot of small businesses because of the ongoing load shedding, which was now happening every day.