Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint a “fit-for-purpose” Eskom leader to replace Andre de Ruyter, who quit as the embattled power utility’s CEO on Wednesday.
Winde expressed grave concern over the resignation: “I urgently call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to outline how he will prioritise and ensure a fit-for-purpose Eskom leader that will deliver the energy plan as promised and needed by this province and country.
“His resignation comes at an extremely precarious time for South Africa as we continue to face relentless and continuous load shedding, and deep anxiety about leadership of the utility.
“Since 6 September we have had only one day without load shedding, and we have had four rounds of stage six load shedding this year,” he added.
Winde has asked for a meeting with De Ruyter.
“The provincial government has spent a significant amount of time across its departments working to mitigate load shedding.
“We are spending R36 million over the medium term on the municipal energy resilience programme, which aims to support municipalities, and the private sector, to generate, to procure, and sell their own power so that we can reduce the impact of rolling power cuts in the province,” he concluded.
De Ruyter resigned amid rumours of mismanagement and incompetence, as the country is experiencing its worst years of load shedding.
SA downgraded to Stage 4 load shedding on Thursday.
Newly appointed Eskom board chairperson Mpho Makwana is widely expected to step in as interim CEO, although he as refuted such claims, stating “that a comprehensive executive search will be conducted to find a suitably qualified candidate”.
“Mr De Ruyter has agreed to stay for an additional period beyond the stipulated 30 days’ notice to ensure continuity while we urgently embark on a search for his successor.
“His last day at Eskom will be 31 March, 2023,” said Makwana in an official statement.
“It has been an honour and privilege to serve Eskom and South Africa. I wish all the hardworking people of Eskom well,” De Ruyter added.
Last week, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe claimed that Eskom was “plotting to overthrow the government”.
It was announced in November that the Eskom board would take a deeper look at the performances of the power utility’s leaders, reports IOL.
In a tweet, EskomSePush said that Mzansi has endured 192 720 minutes of load shedding so far in 2022 – 200% more than any other year.
Eskom has repeatedly blamed the outages on the numerous breakdowns of its ageing coal fleet and maintenance backlogs .
De Ruyter was appointed in January 2020 and during his tenure, faced allegations of racism and corruption.
An investigation, cleared him.It’s not clear when De Ruyter will part ways with Eskom.Business Unity South Africa says the resignation is a major blow to the efforts to address the energy crisis.
But it says De Ruyter’s decision is not surprising, following growing calls for him to resign.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za