Gordhan: Mantashe’s comments about Eskom and De Ruyter ‘unhelpful’

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan came out in defence of outgoing Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter (after the fact) and emphatically denied there are attempts to overthrow the state with load shedding.

De Ruyter the traitor?

Gordhan described Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s comments relating to De Ruyter as unhelpful at a time the country was frustrated by load shedding.

Mantashe had just last week accused Eskom of actively plotting to overthrow the state by not dealing with load shedding and likened De Ruyter’s swooping in on coal theft syndicates as ‘policing’ rather than dealing with generation capacity.

ALSO READ: Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state

When journalists pressed Gordhan and Eskom Board Chairperson Mpho Makwana on whether they agreed with Mantashe’s assessment, Gordhan said: “The answer is an emphatic no, it is unfair and uncalled for.”

When asked about whether Eskom board members were ‘scared’ of Mantashe, Gordhan responded that the energy minister didn’t want anyone to be scared of him.

Makwana, however, stated he enjoyed working with the CEO: “I don’t think I am in a position to comment on whether De Ruyter is a traitor, as a board we worked well with Andre, whatever the board needed, he worked with us.”

De Ruyter’s intention to resign was ‘leaked’

Meanwhile, the outgoing CEO has assured South Africa that he has not been offered another job, but decided that he needed to be with his family after celebrating a milestone birthday last year.

He emphasised the importance of being there for his family who had barely seen him in the past three years.

The outgoing CEO said he was sad to leave Eskom without completing the objectives he had assigned for himself.

ALSO READ: André de Ruyter: What you need to know about Eskom’s outgoing silver fox

Makwana confirmed that the CEO had “taken him into his confidence” and expressed his desire to resign after turning 50, and had committed to stay on board until his replacement could be found.

However, news about his resignation was leaked prematurely and the board had to act.

Makwana and Gordhan were full of praise for the 50-year-old, saying De Ruyter had done a lot to address the problems caused by state capture at the embattled power utility.

Gordhan has also assured the nation that De Ruyter’s departure doesn’t signal a move away from the just energy transition, or the clamp down of coal theft syndicates and the gains made under his tenure.

Makwana and Gordhan were unanimous in their praise for De Ruyter’s humility to step back to allow Eskom to be led by someone “more suitable” to the parastatal’s needs.

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