The Chief Executive of Eskom, South Africa’s power utility, has been asked by the Board of Directors to leave the company with immediate effect.
Andre de Ruyter was serving his last month in office, as he was set to leave at the end of March 2023, following his resignation.
“There will be an acting CEO in the meanwhile”, says Eskom spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha. “The Eskom board, together with the minister of public enterprises, who is the shareholder representative, will agree on the appointment of the acting CEO and Eskom will announce that as soon as possible.”
De Ruyter’s dramatic exit follows his interview with the Television station, eNCA, in which he spoke up about corruption within the utility, with the African National Congress (ANC) and officials implicated in benefitting from Eskom. The CEO said that he had contacted a minister after COP27, saying that he was concerned about the $0.5Billion that was being pledged. De Ruyter said that the unnamed minister responded to him: “The response was, essentially, you have to be pragmatic, you have to in order to pursue the greater good, you have to enable some people to eat a little bit.”
Eskom’s media statement said that the utility and De Ruyter had parted ways through mutual agreement.
