De Ruyter and the ANC were both naïve
16 May 2023
The kerfuffle over revelations made by Andre de Ruyter, CEO of Eskom, about the ANC’s involvement in corruption at Eskom and his (perhaps sensible) reticence to name names, could have been predicted when it was first announced that he would lead the embattled power utility.
De Ruyter has even recently left the country for his own safety and the ANC seems hell-bent on serving him with defamation papers in Germany. The mud-slinging and recriminations are likely to continue for a while, or until De Ruyter is ruined. His new book about his time at the helm of Eskom will set more cats among the pigeons.
And yet, Eskom and the ANC government as well as De Ruyter willingly and rather gleefully went into partnership in 2020. Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Pravin Gordhan even thanked De Ruyter for his willingness to serve the country and for taking a pay-cut due to Eskom’s financial maladies.
I don’t know what they expected De Ruyter to do or be while holding the reins at Eskom. Perhaps it was to simply be a respectable face that wouldn’t ruffle too many feathers, stay largely mum about the obvious criminality and corruption that crippled the utility, and manage the transition to a future of clean energy. They most probably made some bold but unrealistic promises before he assumed the helm about helping him fight corruption and keeping the unions in check.
His actual expectations were clearly different. He intended to root out the procurement irregularities that were driving up costs for everything from mops to toilet paper and coal. He got rid of people who were incompetent political appointees. He reported criminality to the police and other law enforcement agencies, and launched his own private investigation when he ostensibly got a cold official shoulder.
He managed to shrink the workforce through means other than mass retrenchments, while appointing appropriately skilled workers that suit the company’s needs. He did his best to keep wage increases low. This no doubt angered the entrenched vested and criminal interests at Eskom and in its supply chain. The inevitable rear-guard action came in many forms, such strikes, vitriol and even an assassination attempt on his life.
Under normal circumstances and in other settings, he would have been congratulated for at least trying to remedy the situation and mildly succeeding in doing so. But alas, in the ANC’s South Africa rhetoric and action are two different, and often contradictory, concepts.
Maybe, the government wanted a miracle worker who could alleviate Eskom’s travails without causing too much disruption and maintaining the status quo. In this vein, the political commentator Prof William Gumede recently wrote in Sunday Times that some ANC members and leaders actually believe that the energy crisis can be solved by making certain appointments.
“However, many ANC and government leaders and former Eskom executives and board members responsible for the crisis continue to misinform the public that it can be solved in a few months, without cleaning up corruption, criminal mafias in the coal, trucking and procurement spaces, vested interests in the state and trade unions, and tenderpreneurs who parasitically depend on the utility,” he argued.
He further stated that Eskom may as well be written off in the short term because its challenges are too serious for it to be turned around in a short space of time. Solutions must therefore be sought in the private sector, communities and individual households.
Nobody with virtuous intentions of turning Eskom around wants to, or could, do it. If you do intend to do it largely by yourself and without help from the state as Eskom’s sole shareholder (as De Ruyter had done), you will run into inevitable and immense vested interests. It is dangerous and life-threatening, seeing as he was almost poisoned. If you don’t, the public will loathe you and the very same politicians that got the company into this mess, will harangue and scapegoat you in public. It’s really a job no sane and righteous person wants.
All that is left to say is that De Ruyter and the government were both naïve when they embarked on fixing Eskom together. De Ruyter was probably tricked into believing for believing that the ANC will change when he is in charge, while the government believed that someone can clean up their mess without combating corruption and keeping his mouth shut about it. It could be that he got caught between the conflict of visions about the nature of the energy sector (coal versus renewables) that obtains within the ruling party – and became its latest and most high-profile victim.
The end result is high stages of rolling blackouts (and even higher ones predicted for the winter), some political intrigue, threats, and corrupt elements at Eskom maintaining the status quo of impunity. Don’t expect the next Eskom boss to be anything but a lackey with some impressive qualifications that makes the right noises, but ultimately toes the Party line.
De Ruyter’s original goals were unlikely to be the writing of a tell-all book about his personal adversity and corruption at Eskom that could get him banished from South Africa for life. It was certainly to turn Eskom around and stop load-shedding. His fate is an object lesson in how good intentions never go unpunished.
Dr Eugene Brink is an entrepreneur, business consultant and independent commentator.
