GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
14 December 2022
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter announced his resignation today, effective at the end of March 2023. Conspiracy theories for his departure abound, none of them particularly helpful to addressing the country’s energy crisis.
Over the past 10 years, Eskom has had 13 different chief executives and acting chief executives.
All of them, besides the one accused of having been at the center of state capture, have presided over a period of intermittent power failures – with 2022 by far the worst year on record, despite the embattled utility burning record and unaffordable quantities of diesel.
How the lights were kept on under Brian Molefe’s leadership must still be convincingly explained. It is said he did it through a combination of neglecting power station maintenance to keep generation going, and burning diesel (albeit, much less than is being burned today).
Previously, loadshedding was blamed on the neglect of maintenance in the Mbeki era. Every now and again, Ministers of Public Enterprises (from Alec Erwin in the late 2000s to present incumbent Pravin Gordhan) have added alleged sabotage to the list of explanations for Eskom’s failures.
The truth is evasive. All we really know for certain is that we’ve been experiencing blackouts for 15 years, and instead of getting better, it’s been getting worse.
We also know that most of our coal-powered power stations are reaching the end of their lives, which is no bad thing given our commitments to contribute to decelerating climate change, and that our long-term solutions are in renewable energy.
In the meantime, South Africa needs to generate and distribute enough electricity to keep the country and economy’s lights on. This won’t be possible without a stable hand on the tiller at Eskom.
GOOD calls on the State and Eskom Board to use De Ruyter’s resignation as an opportunity to recruit someone with the kind of experience and capacity to demand institutional support, restore power supply stability in the short-term, and go on to preside over the just transition to renewable energy.
If the ideal candidate cannot be recruited within the country, we must look further afield. The new CEO’s first task should be to provide a credible and implementable roadmap to end the power cuts.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 082 518 3264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 073 367 1223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za