According to reports, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe is not a fan of Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter and believes the troubled power company requires a leader with the right abilities to meet its operational requirements.
De Ruyter and the other members of Eskom’s leadership have been under fire recently, especially as the state-owned company struggles to maintain operations due to a number of issues, including a wage strike.
Due to the load shedding situation, there have been increasing calls for the entire government, including Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, to be removed.
Energy analysts and other stakeholders expressed great alarm when stage 6 load shedding was reinstated as a result of the parastatal’s position.
ESKOM NEEDS A FIXER, Mantashe says
In an interview with Mail & Guardian, Gwede Mantashe claimed that Eskom needed a “fixer” and contrasted Andre De Ruyter with the engineer-turned-COO, parastatal’s Jan Oberholzer. Mantashe told the publication that while De Ruyter technically comprehends Eskom’s problems, there is a significant gap between him and Oberholzer.
“Theoretically, it’s good if you go to Eskom and speak to the chief executive.
However, there is a noticeable difference when speaking with the chief operating officer [Oberholzer], an engineer.
This is because the engineer is aware of the problems and knows that in order to deal with load shedding, it is necessary to maintain and service units that are not in use but are still providing us with megawatts.
After Phakamani Hadebe’s resignation in January 2020, De Ruyter was chosen.
De Ruyter, in Mantashe’s opinion, is more of a “alpha” who joins the utility after the fixer has completed their task.
Eskom requires a fixer, a someone who concentrates on what is broken, attempts to solve it, and then moves on after fixing it.
You can then have an alpha,” he stated.
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