Andre de Ruyter released 'Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom' in May 2023. Photo: Narissa Subramoney
To say that Eskom’s former CEO André de Ruyter ruffled feathers at the highest and most dangerous echelons of power might be the understatement of the year, so far at least.
On Monday morning, I rushed to my nearest bookstore to get a copy after discovering it wasn’t available on Kindle.
As a journalist, I had followed his tenure at Eskom closely, and that of other CEOs before him in my daily reporting of the parastatal’s decline.
I wanted to read his account about the workings of Eskom and decide for myself. His book reads like a CEO report, but it is far from boring. Quite the contrary, I found his explanations of tricky government policy, engineering and electricity tariffs refreshingly easy to understand.
He dumbed down Eskom’s complexity because I believe the silver fox CEO wanted every South African to understand the makings and functioning of the power crisis.
In writing this book, De Ruyter gave South Africans a valuable tool to interrogate what our leaders and unions communicate going forward in this never-ending nightmare.
De Ruyter is a family man first. As a parent to three children, he worries about what is left behind for them when he and his wife pass on. It is something every loving parent ponders, and for the younger generation, the perils of planet Earth may as well be a contraceptive advert. Many couples choose to be childless or limit the number of children they have because they don’t trust the future of the country and the world in general.
During a family dinner conversation, De Ruyter’s son made a sobering remark about his father’s history in Sasol and green energy that stuck with the CEO, or should I say, father.
Yes, he advocates for green energy, but he didn’t strike me as naive enough to believe that green energy was the only power source for an economy.
His attempts to secure green energy was his way of procuring more generation capacity in the shortest time. It was also something personal he wanted to accomplish as a CEO for the country grappling with a power crisis and the legacy he leaves for his children, who have a heightened awareness about the planet’s well-being.
His daily habits point to him being a member of the 5am club: Wake up, exercise and get the ball rolling on the day.
De Ruyter is also a neat freak, and his eye for dusty surfaces and dirty corners rivals my grandmother’s. I was especially delighted to know the man carb loads when he is stressed, opting for a Steers burger and slap chips on those days.
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I found his respect and acute assessment of EFF commander-in-chief Julius Malema refreshing. Malema is not a loudmouth buffoon, although he appears to work hard to portray that image.
The CIC is an astute and powerful leader who would be well-loved by all South Africans if he was more inclusive in his approach. (If Malema is reading, I recommend he does the Inner Engineering programme to become a better leader.)
During the first EFF march to Megawatt Park – aka Mordor – De Ruyter went outside to receive the red party’s memorandum personally. At that moment, the two exchanged caps. The CEO adorns the red cap momentarily before removing it because the ANC are cry babies. (He didn’t write the ANC are cry babies – I summarised the gist). But, De Ruyter did hang Malema’s cap in his office, where it remained until his last days.
One of Eskom’s former CEOs, aka Saxonwold Sheeben patron, Brian Molefe had received an award for ending load shedding. (*Cries in stage 8)
De Ruyter describes Molefe’s trophy for ending load shedding as a “phallic monstrosity” that greeted him when he first walked into the CEOs office.
“The silver trophy was more than half a metre high and looked like a cross between an aloe and rollercoaster.”
He had it removed because it marred the magnificent view of Johannesburg and probably because it may have resembled a silver penis-shaped eyesore.
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I highly doubt Gordhan read this book because if he did, the minister would have chosen his words about De Ruyter more carefully in front of Scopa.
De Ruyter says his relationship with Gordhan was polite and courteous. At a time when the ANC is being blamed for destroying South Africa, Pravin Mama, (which he is affectionately known as in the Indian community; the word “mama” translates to “uncle” in the Tamil language) emerged as the corrupt party’s moral compass. Most, if not everyone, who didn’t resonate with the RET or leftist ideology, were all outraged when he was unceremoniously sacked as the country’s finance minister in the Zuma era.
The last modicum of faith anyone may have had for the liberation party may as well be credited to Gordhan. The man who famously told us to “connect the dots” is an ANC party man through and through. Make no mistake, Gordhan’s love for the ANC trumps his love for South Africa and her people, as De Ruyter’s book painfully reveals repeatedly.
Gordhan failed us as an SOE minister and as the governing party’s so-called moral compass. I am very weary of anything he has to say on public enterprises, and this was before De Ruyter wrote his book. I started losing faith in Gordhan when he went to Parliament and asked South Africans to stop calling ANC members “thugs”.
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De Ruyter’s assessment that our Mineral Resources and Energy Minister is “terrifying” is on point. In the course of his book, De Ruyter unpacks the many ways Gwede Mantashe roadblocked his efforts to turn Eskom’s fortunes around.
Mantashe‘s love for coal is well documented. I am not entirely convinced that Old King Coal is wrong to prefer coal-fired power, which capitalises on South Africa’s abundant natural resources, over other forms of power.
Still, the minister appears incredibly short-sighted and astoundingly tone-deaf based on the CEO’s dealings with him.
De Ruyter details his difficulties procuring equipment for coal-fired plants because of a global shift towards cutting carbon sessions. He also explores the myth punted by Mantashe’s supporters of “clean coal”.
It requires far too much water, and we lack the infrastructure for it. Also, at no point in his writing did De Ruyter point to shifting entirely away from coal and only to renewables. Read the book.
His assessment of Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel came as a surprise to me. De Ruyter was scathing in his views on the trade minister, saying that international counterparts in the clean energy sector were often confused by both Mantashe and Patel.
Patel, like other ANC leaders, lacks business acumen and appears to be financially illiterate in the approach to trade policies. In detailing how inept politicians are at business, he also addresses two elephants in South Africa’s political landscape: that of “rainbow patronage”, which he describes as our government’s attitude on the international stage, in which the ANC members living in Never Never Land hold the belief that the world, in particular, the west owes us patronage and exceptionalism because the land produced Nelson Mandela and the rainbow nation.
Needless to say, Mandela has been rolling in his grave since we buried him.
The other elephant in the room was the culture of bribery. “The something extra” and the need to “feed hungry cadres” is deeply engrained in our national fibre to the point that an extra “something” for doing business with South Africa is not just expected, but our ministers can turn up their noses at investors and kick a golden gift horse in the mouth because the carrot is not big enough.
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The truth about Eskom. It’s frightening, heartbreaking and soul-crushing for the decent employees trying to keep the power going at that crime scene. Eskom is a crime scene. Finish and klaar.
De Ruyter busts open the dark, dirty and dusty dealings in such a way it reminded me of the scene in the first Harry Potter movie in which Lord Voldemort is seen feeding on a dead unicorn.
Eskom is that unicorn, and she is chained, milked and drained of every life source in the most putrid and obscene manner by a vast, intricately connected criminal network with political patrons sitting at Luthuli House.
If Eskom is the hijacked golden unicorn, then Mantashe, Gordhan and Patel are the three-headed dog guarding the crime scene.
Eskom CEOs, and I suspect the new electricity minister, are appointed at face value only. Anyone with intentions to actually stop criminal activity will be booted out and labelled a traitor.
Now, every time the lights go out, I wonder if it’s because the fuel oil cartel sabotaged the coal. After all, they need the money to fund a level of luxury that cannot be undone. Read the book.
It was too easy with De Ruyter, though. He was set up to fail because the ANC would never allow a white man without political patronage to save South Africa from the power crisis. The same man is also pro-renewable energy, so it was easy to paint him as a racist who is hellbent on keeping people of colour disempowered.
If that fails, he breached the confidentiality clauses of his contract and the myriad of reasons coming out of Luthuli House and the newer spineless Eskom board scrambling to do damage control in the aftermath.
But the average citizen sitting in the darkness waiting for the power rationing to pass has a right to know what is happening with our electricity supply, and De Ruyter gave us a gift in writing his memoir.
For me personally, I wish the man well and hope to see him at the forefront of green power generation in a country that appreciates the kind of leader he is.
To his family, thank you for lending him to us for that short time. He may not be the green crusader you wanted, but he gave us much-needed enlightening on the power crisis.
For South Africans and local businesses, if you have the means, waste no time powering up your own homes and businesses at personal cost. You will be protecting yourself against erratic power supply and sticking it to old Gweezy and his cadres, hell-bent on preserving the monopoly on power even if it means burning this country to the ground to rule over the ashes. (PS: Juju, please don’t let that happen.)
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