Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eskom, André de Ruyter, speaks during an interview on 15 November 2021, in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images/Rapport/Deon Raath)
ANC leaders in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa and Eskom’s board to fire the parastatal’s CEO André de Ruyter.
ANC KZN provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo and his Limpopo counterpart, Reuben Madadzhe, on Thursday held a joint press briefing on the intermittent load shedding facing the country.
The ANC leaders said they had collectively agreed that De Ruyter should be fired for his “dismal performance” as the CEO of the embattled power utility.
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They said the rolling blackouts were destroying the country’s economy and resulted in poor quality of life for many South Africans.
While the ANC leaders welcomed the appointment of a new Eskom board last month, they laid the blame squarely on De Ruyter for Eskom’s generation capacity challenges and breakdowns at its aged power stations.
This is despite the new Eskom board and Ramaphosa previously expressing confidence in the leadership of De Ruyter to run the power utility.
“The board has been removed, which is good and we must applaud the president because he listened to us, but I can tell you the board will fail. They will fail because they got someone who doesn’t know what to do at Eskom,” said Mtolo.
“The problem is André de Ruyter. They should have fired André de Ruyter and once they fire him, they will get someone who knows how to run this thing [Eskom]… and then we will have no problem in the country,” he added.
Mtolo accused De Ruyter of focusing on renewable energy sources instead of fixing the challenges bedevilling Eskom.
“André de Ruyter said he is not interested in resuscitating Eskom. He said it’s a dead horse. He believes that renewables will help us.
“Renewables I can tell you, they’re like a spare wheel. You can’t rely on a spare wheel, the car must have four wheels and then have a spare wheel in case this one burst,” he said.
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Mtolo further said they were concerned that SA’s quality coal was being exported to Europe and Asian countries, while substandard coal was being “deliberately” used at Eskom’s coal-fired plants.
He said De Ruyter was “stupid” for not procuring quality coal for the utility’s power stations.
“It’s not like there is a shortage of coal in the country, they’re stupidly not buying coal… that’s their own deficiency. Secondly, they say they buy substandard coal and put it in coal-fired power plants, which destroys their own systems because they put substandard coal with stones. That is their stupidity.
“They also say they don’t do quality routine maintenance, it’s another stupidly that they’re doing. And you know who’s that stupid? It’s André de Ruyter.”
On claims of sabotage at Eskom’s power plants, Madadzhe said government needed to step in and ensure law enforcement agencies arrest the culprits.
“When we say the government must step in, we must dedicate a team of law enforcement agencies which can look at the issue of the coal magnets; people who are stealing coal and people who are stealing diesel that is supposed to be supplied to Eskom,” he said.
Meanwhile, Eskom announced on Thursday that rolling blackouts would continue until Monday morning in varying stages.
The embattled power utility said stage 3 load shedding would be implemented until 5am on Friday morning. The stage 3 power cuts would then resume from 4pm on Friday until 5am Saturday morning.
Stage 2 load shedding would be implemented from 5am on Saturday until 5am on Monday morning.
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