GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
23 February 2023
Outgoing Eskom CEO André De Ruyter raised serious allegations against unnamed senior politicians in a television interview broadcast this week – the same week in which Eskom broke new ground by quietly implementing Stage 7 loadshedding (which it called Stage 6).
De Ruyter effectively claimed in his television interview to have personal knowledge of ongoing high-level corruption at the power utility, as well as efforts to steal a portion of donor funds and loans raised by Eskom to fund the transition to renewable energy.
Instead of raising these allegations in a television interview, he should be raising them with law-enforcement authorities.
As a consequence of the interview, it was announced last night that Eskom De Ruyter would leave Eskom with immediate effect, despite initially committing to staying until the end of March to assist with a smooth handover.
His departure leaves Eskom with a leadership void at the worst possible time, with the company burning unprecedented amounts of diesel in its desperation to stop the system failing altogether.
On Tuesday, Eskom’s spokesperson confirmed on Twitter that loadshedding had been escalated to Stage 7, with power cuts ramped up to 7045MW. But although this was Stage 7 territory, the power utility called it Stage 6 – presumably to avert deepening negativity and panic on the day before the Minister of Finance was to introduce the national budget.
Experts have warned that Stage 8 load-shedding could be imminent, which is considered a threshold if we are to avert real disaster. Stage 7 took us a further step in the wrong direction this week.
De Ruyter may have failed to curtail loadshedding while at the helm of Eskom, but the intelligence he gained about ongoing criminal networks could be vital to placing Eskom on a path where success in stabilizing the grid is not impossible.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za