‘Too many cooks in the kitchen’: De Ruyter says he resigned due to Gordhan, new Eskom board

Former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says the constant interference by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the power utility’s new board played a role in his decision to resign.

De Ruyter, who resigned in December 2022, was due to vacate his office Eskom on 31 March.

However, he left Eskom a month earlier following an explosive interview with eNCA.

‘Made my life quite challenging’

Explaining to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) why he resigned, De Ruyter cited Gordhan’s apparent micromanagement in the day-to-day operations at Eskom as one of the examples.

“I think Mr Gordhan is known for a style that can be characterised as being extremely involved in operational detail down to individual power station units,” De Ruyter said on Wednesday.

He told the committee that the minister would engage directly with middle-ranking Eskom officials, bypassing senior executives like himself and chief operating officer (COO) Jan Oberholzer.

“Yes, there were examples of intervention in the day-to-day operations. Whether that was to gain information or to verify information, I don’t know, but it made life as the responsible accounting officer quite difficult. [Having] many different cooks in the kitchen does not always result in a good meal,” the former Eskom boss said.

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De Ruyter also said Eskom’s new board, which was appointed in September, made it difficult for him to carry out his duties.

He claimed that the new board had adopted a different approach to the previous interim board chaired by Malegapuru Makgoba, which he had a positive relationship with.

“It has become a self-styled engaged board, or activist board, and has immersed itself in operational detail which some would characterise as an overreach for a non-executive board,” he said.

“It certainly made my life quite challenging. Meetings were held with subordinates of mine without my knowledge, and instructions were given [to them].

“I experienced this as disempowering. I know certain colleagues on the executive committee had similar experiences. The executives are the people who should run the company and should be held to account to the board’s oversight.”

State meddling

Earlier in the meeting, De Ruyter conceded that the current challenges faced by Eskom can be attributed to political interference.

“It’s an interesting question whether the load shedding is because of state meddling, or a lack of state involvement,” he said in response to Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Benedicta Van Minnen’s question.

“I think is fair to call it interference in the affairs of Eskom because, with respect, politicians have a time horizon that is shorter than the time horizon for power utilities to think in time horizons of 20 to 30 years.

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“There is a long history of decisions that were taken [by politicians] dating back to 1998 of politicians, for example, preventing Eskom from adding new generation capacity and to that extent I think your comment is valid that political interference has a negative impact on the ability to supply electricity to South Africa.

“But on the other hand, the lack on intervention in crime at Eskom is something that inflicts the organisation to this day.”

The former Eskom boss said that it was clear that sabotage played a role in load shedding.

“I think it’s common cause by now that there’s rampant criminality that inflicts Eskom and that creates an opportunity for criminals to take advantage, and have a negative impact on Eskom to produce electricity,” the former Eskom CEO said.

Crime cartels

De Ruyter also spoke on the four crime cartels – including the Presidential Cartel – that are alleged to be involved in malpractice and sabotage related to coal theft and fraud at Eskom.

“The name of this cartel as far as I know is something that the members of the cartel came up with… I am not aware that is has got any significance that attaches to anybody related to the Presidency,” he said.

The former Eskom CEO said news of the cartels became public, the members were active on social media and boosted that “thanks to coal they could shower in champagne”.

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“As the committee would know, there are significant security risks that are attached to this… there are numerous murders in Mpumalanga related to crime and having been exposed once, I am very reluctant to put myself in that position again,” he said.

He, however, denied the suggestion that he was instructed by a senior politician to allow the cartels to do business with Eskom at any stage.

“No, I was given no instruction and I did not comply with such an instruction,” De Ruyter said.

Watching the proceedings below:

The former Eskom CEO maintained that he notified all relevant people and authorities about the cartels once he was made aware of their existence last year.

“I have good reason to believe these cartels are in existence, they operate in Mpumalanga, and that they do extract, by various criminal practices, money from Eskom.”

De Ruyter further confirmed that a private intelligence investigation was carried out to look into corruption and theft at Eskom.

WATCH: Did De Ruyter fund ‘private investigation’ into corruption at Eskom?

He said no state funds were used for the R50 million investigation.

“This investigation was funded by private donors and they were also the contracting parties,” he told the committee.

“Eskom was not a party to any of the agreements… no public funds were involved so I suggest that the identity of those donors should remain within their purview. Again, I would not wish to interfere in any ongoing legal or criminal investigation.”