Brace yourself, Eskom, here comes the axeman

New Eskom boss Andre de Ruyter’s race, experience and track record have elicited approval and disapproval but experts are confident that his “no-nonsense” character was the first step on the plagued power utility’s path to redemption.

Top of his priority list when he takes over as Eskom’s group chief executive in January will be to split the utility into three separate units (generation, transmission and distribution), keep the lights on and tackle the R450 billion debt.

De Ruyter’s tenure at Nampak, which he currently heads, has been marred by the slump in the leading packaging company’s market value from R29 billion when he took over in 2014 to a mere R5 million today.

This fact, and that De Ruyter has no engineering background, has not been lost on his detractors, who slammed his appointment as not inspiring confidence and racist because he is white.

University of North West political analyst, Professor André Duvenhage, said De Ruyter was the “axe” brought in to chop off the head of the corruption and maladministration beast that has fed on Eskom for over a decade.

He said De Ruyter’s appointment was on merit, solely based on the clean-up operation of president Cyril Ramaphosa, the mission to ensure that Eskom is functional again and that De Ruyter’s mandate was to bring about that desired change.

“Unfortunately, it is a controversial appointment because he is a white Afrikaner male from Pretoria and, therefore, opinions are based on current politics of race. But that is exactly the point of his appointment, that the only consideration was what is good for the general public,” Duvenhage said.

He said the about 900 jobs at stake due to South African Airways’ restructuring were nothing compared to what is coming at Eskom and that this could not be avoided.

The African Transformation Network said De Ruyter’s appointment gave credence to the national cry that at state-owned enterprises, under Minister Pravin Gordhan, unqualified and incompetent white people were preferred over Africans with experience and qualifications.

“The continued trend of hounding out African professionals [in SOEs] and replacing them with anyone other than another African has indeed been the hallmark of this administration. A serial reversal of the transformation project,” the party said yesterday in a statement.

The National Trade Union Congress said it did not matter whether the appointee was white or black, as long they were up to the mammoth task.

“Eskom has had 10 CEOs in the space of 10 years and their tenures at the power utility have been shrouded in corruption and maladministration that has plunged Eskom into the mess it is in now.

“Our concern is the sustainability of Eskom. We are going to give Mr De Ruyter a chance to do his job and judge him on his skills and ability,” said Sophonia Machaba, the union’s secretary-general.

He said race has been used as an excuse for cadre deployment, which has resulted in unqualified and tainted people appointed to strategic positions, to the detriment of public entities.

The Congress of SA Trade Unions said job losses would not be accepted and demanded to know how much it would cost Eskom to restructure in terms of transaction advisory fees.

“Eskom and government must develop urgent plans for a just transition for workers and communities whose livelihoods are in danger as energy and coal mines reach the end of their lifespans in the next few years,” said spokesperson Sizwe Pamla.

He said they were also hopefully that De Ruyter would manage to stop the implosion of the power utility and that they expected him to get to the bottom of what has been going on at Eskom.

Merry-go-round of Eskom bosses in past decade

The Eskom CEO position has been described as a poisoned chalice, with 10 chief executive officers going through the door over the past decade.

Mpho Makwana, November 2009-June 2010 – Appointed in an acting capacity following the resignation of Jacob Maroga and credited with leading the team that avoided blackouts during the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Makwana’s term ended with the appointment of Brian Dames to the position of permanent CEO in July 2010.

Brian Dames, July 2010-March 2014 – Resigned from Eskom, citing personal reasons, and is credited with stabilising the power utility after blackouts in 2007 and keeping the lights on.

Collin Matjila, April 2014-September 2014 – Acted in the position following Dames’ resignation and handed over the reins to Tshediso Matona months later.

Tshediso Matona, October 2014-April 2015 – Synonymous with the Eskom silo that collapsed at Majuba power station, resulting in the resurfacing of load shedding.

Brian Molefe, April 2015-November 2016 – Managed to keep the lights on during his tenure but this legacy was soon tainted when he was implicated in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s state of capture report.

Matshela Koko, May 2016- May 2017 – Tenure was tainted by a Sunday Times report that a firm in which his stepdaughter was a director allegedly pocketed R1 billion worth of Eskom contracts.

Johnny Dladla, June 2017-October 2017 – Acted as Eskom CEO during the Brian Molefe saga from Mid 2017 but was removed in October 2017 as the board had to rotate executives in the CEO role.

Sean Maritz, October 2017- January 2018 – Replaced Dladla but in January 2018 reports surfaced that he had signed off on a R400 million payment to a Hong Kong bank account against legal advice.

Phakamani Hadebe, January 2018-July 2019 – Tasked with leading a turnaround strategy at Eskom, dealing with rising debt, operational challenges that led black outs and charting a way forward for the ailing entity.

Jabu Mabuza, August 2019 – During his short stint at the helm, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni tabled a Special Appropriations Bill allocating R59 billion for Eskom to meet its financial obligations.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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