According to Eskom, it will reply to former CEO André de Ruyter’s explosive tell-all book on his three years leading the struggling power at a “appropriate time.” Observing news about the book, Eskom stated on Monday. “Eskom will examine the book’s content and provide a thorough response when it is appropriate”.
It added, “We continue to concentrate on the task at hand to restore generating performance, lessen load-shedding, and turn the organization around”. Truth to Power, My Three Years Inside Eskom by De Ruyter was published on Sunday. De Ruyter argues that a “highly placed politician” who served on the presidential task team “requested that all information be shared only with him” and that this led to information from a state security probe into potential sabotage, which started in 2019, being withheld from Eskom and police leadership. De Ruyter states in the book that he told public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, Sydney Mufamadi, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security adviser, the names of two top politicians implicated in the sabotage and that Gordhan was not surprised.
Shortly after De Ruyter’s stunning interview with eNCA in February, Gordhan corroborated this in an interview with Newzroom Afrika. The ANC was accused of misconduct and illegal activity by the then-outgoing CEO during the discussion with host Annika Larsen.
“I voiced my concerns to a senior government minister about what I believed were attempts to weaken governance surrounding the $8.5 billion [R152.4 billion] that we received at COP26 mostly due to Eskom’s participation, and the reaction was that you must be pragmatic”. He stated in the interview that in order to advance the larger good, you must make it possible for some individuals to eat. When asked what transpired when he brought up persistent criminal conduct at Eskom and his worries, he responded: “So when we pointed out there was one particular high-level politician involved in this the minister in question looked at senior officials and said, ‘I guess it was inevitable that it would come out anyway.’”
