By EDN Reporter
South African electricity producer Eskom on Wednesday night announced that its CEO Andrè de Ruyter has left the organisation with immediate effect.
The power utility in a statement said: “Following the convening of a special Board meeting on 22 February 2023, the Eskom Board and Group Chief Executive (GCE) Andrè de Ruyter have reached a mutual agreement to curtail his notice period to 28 February 2023.”
“The board further resolved that Mr de Ruyter will not be required to serve the balance of his notice period but that he will be released from his position with immediate effect.”
The announcement comes as De Ruyter was supposed to be at the helm of the organisation until March following his resignation in December. However, he caught flack on Wednesday following an interview on the Television channel eTV where he said there was rampant corruption at the utility engineered by top politicians from the ANC.
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During the interview, he claimed that undisclosed members of the ANC and government at the highest levels were aware of the corruption happening at Eskom. He further claimed that Eskom serves as the ANC’s “feeding trough”.
De Ruyter said he was approached by a minister about a high-level politician who was involved in sinister and potentially criminal activities at the utility.
“I expressed my concern to a senior government minister about attempts, in my view, to water down governance around the $8.5 billion (R154.6bn), that largely through Eskom’s intervention we received at COP26. And the response was essentially, ‘you know, you have to be pragmatic in order to pursue the greater good, you have to enable some people to eat a little bit’,” he said in the interview.
Those statements pitted him against the minister of State Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan who was quoted in the TimesLive as having said de Ruyter must not get involved in politics but should rather focus on ending load-shedding.
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“What’s important is that CEOs of any entity, including Eskom, should not be involved in open political debates or assertions, and where they have political views, that is their private business and they are welcome to express those views privately. But it is the responsibility of any CEO of any entity, as far as I am concerned, to keep their focus on the job at hand and make sure that is done as proficiently as possible,” Gordhan was quoted as saying.
Eskom announced that acting GCE arrangements were being finalized with the shareholder Minister and would be communicated shortly.
