André de Ruyter: Set up to fail from the start

It is doubtful outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter was ever going to be allowed to succeed when he took on the job of trying to fix the rickety utility on 15 January 2020.

He walked into a more than R400 billion debt, two brand new coal-fired power stations which were acknowledged by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to be badly designed and badly built, endemic corruption and an ageing fleet.

De Ruyter also walked into a firestorm of political opposition to his appointment from parties who were furious a black person was not appointed.

As Gordhan noted in November 2019 when announcing De Ruyter’s appointment, there were 142 applicants for the job, which was whittled down to six, where De Ruyter eventually was appointed. It was also reported many top executives refused the job.

Maybe they didn’t want to take the salary cut De Ruyter did because Eskom didn’t have the money. When it was decided Eskom would be broken up into generation, distribution and transmission in February 2019, following then Eskom CEO’s Phakamani Hadebe’s resignation, it was left to De Ruyter to implement the plan.

On 29 November, the Daily Investor reported Eskom generation executive Rhulani Mathebula revealed: “fraud, corruption, funding constraints, poor planning, and shoddy work is crushing the power utility”.

One of Eskom’s biggest problems was it had to service its own debt which had accumulated over years, creating a black hole for the entity as it leeched funds from its budget for repairs and maintenance. Add in rampant political interference and De Ruyter was never going to succeed.

It was reported in the media recently Gordhan denied political meddling, which falls flat when there is a “Political Task Team on Eskom”. Don’t forget the ad hominem attacks on De Ruyter by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, whose late arrival to the energy crisis is a flurry of green energy contracts.

The earliest any of these will mature is in 12 to 18 months so of course, Mantashe has to deflect attention from his monumental failure to timeously provide new energy by going on the attack. Eskom’s coal-fired plants have a life expectancy of around 50 years and the fleet’s average age is 42 years old.

According to Mantashe, this isn’t so bad, and if the plants were properly maintained, they would work for much longer.

Plainly, what needs to happen is Mantashe needs to take over as CEO so he can pull Eskom out of the grave. It seems in his wonderland, corruption would instantly disappear, money would rain from the heavens, people on the economic bones of their asses would magically pay and all the theft of electricity would stop because syndicates would fade away…

The radical economic transformation (RET) faction of the ANC has been severely hobbled in recent months, being little more than a fading bleat in the mist.

This means – as a mostly unified body – the ANC is speaking with one voice again, and Mantashe’s remarks were sanctioned in the caviar which the ANC’s national executive committee wallows in.

It has been a year of soul-battering load shedding. President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet have run out of ideas. The country and the economy have run out of time.

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