Andre de Ruyter under fire
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has once again taken a swipe at former Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter, saying his appointment to lead the company was a mistake.
Speaking to NewzroomAfrika, Ramokgopa was asked about previous comments where he referred to a “certain individual” who “had no clue” what he was doing during the peak years of load shedding.
When asked who he was referring to, the minister said it was the most recent predecessor as CEO, Andre de Ruyter, who had a “misalignment of skills” at the power utility.
He said that De Ruyter had not been exposed to an organisation of the magnitude of Eskom nor the energy sector, so the “learning curve was prolonged”.
“You are managing a crisis. The intention was to get out of the crisis. So you had to have a deeper appreciation of how these machines work…you need to know what has to be done,” Ramokgopa said.
The minister said that “the moment”, the peak of load shedding, and “the skills” possessed by De Ruyter were a mismatch.
“When you are faced with such a crisis, you must make sure you get people with the right skills in that position,” he said.
“During a crisis, you can’t learn how a rotating machine works. I (a civil engineer) can’t go tomorrow and perform heart surgery
Ramokgopa stressed that he was not putting all the blame on De Ruyter, noting that an organisation the size of Eskom cannot be dragged down or pulled out of crisis by one person.
“But the leader sets the tone. He’s the one who provides guidance. He’s the collective of that leadership that must direct the company,” he said.
“Ultimately, at a technical level, the buck stops with one person, and that’s the CEO.”
The minister said that the situation with De Ruyter and the misalignment as CEO was a lesson, so the government knows what not to do going forward.
“Get the right skills to resolve the problem,” he said.
De Ruyter’s time at Eskom criticised
De Ruyter has been widely criticised for his time at Eskom, particularly by those heading the power utility after he resigned at the end of 2022.
He exited Eskom under a dark cloud, as load shedding reached crisis levels under his leadership in 2022.
The executive lost workers’ faith as he pushed for a more rapid shift to renewables at the expense of coal operations that employed thousands.
Eskom director Clive le Roux said in May that De Ruyter’s green energy initiative resulted in coal power plant staff feeling neglected, left out, and that they had no future.
He also lost the government’s support as load shedding became a permanent fixture in South Africa. The solution—taking more units offline for maintenance, making load shedding worse—was politically unpalatable.
However, despite the criticisms against him, De Ruyter also played a critical role in exposing corruption at the utility. He was right more than once on how Eskom was flying close to the sun with diesel usage.
Following his resignation, the former chief executive made explosive accusations of widespread corruption at the power utility, claiming that criminal syndicates were robbing the place bare.
He also alleged that the syndicates were tied to high-profile politicians.
While many of these claims have fizzled out, Eskom has spent the last few years rooting out many criminal elements and getting the SIU involved in investigations.
De Ruyter also claimed that Eskom’s success with stopping load shedding in 2024 was due to the utility finding other means to supplement generation, especially by burning diesel “at the rate of knots”.
This also proved to be true, with the utility’s diesel use running into the billions of rands even into 2025 while it increased maintenance to record levels.
Regardless of the criticisms or vindications, Ramokgopa said that the current leadership team at Eskom is technically competent with exceptional credentials needed to pull the company from the brink.
Previously, with De Ruyter, there was a “misdirection” in placing someone who lacked appreciation for running a utility of this nature, he said.
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