Johannesburg – The outgoing head of South Africa’s embattled power utility Eskom said on Thursday he stepped down due to a lack of political support, having recently come under pressure from some government ministers.
Andre de Ruyter on Wednesday announced his resignation, but will stay on until April, as the nation suffers from a worsening energy crisis.
He told a virtual press conference that crime and corruption were among the main obstacles he faced in trying to turn around the state-owned entity.
“I’m unfortunately currently in a position where I do not regard that… as being tenable and I have accordingly decided to step back,” said de Ruyter a former packaging executive who took over as Eskom’s CEO in 2020.
Support from the “broader political economy” was “critical” to ensure Eskom’s success, he added.
ALSO READ | SA power utility Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter resigns amid energy crisis
Scheduled blackouts have burdened South Africa for years, with Eskom failing to keep pace with demand and maintain its ageing coal power infrastructure.
But the outages reached new extremes this year.
Record power cuts have cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in lost output, disrupting commerce and industry and angering the population, with lights going off often several times a day for a few hours.
Analysts say the firm’s troubles are the result of years of mismanagement, disrepair and graft.
The company, which generates more than 90 percent of South Africa’s energy, has had more than a dozen CEOs in the past 15 years.
“I’m obviously disappointed that I could not achieve all of the objectives that I had set myself,” de Ruyter said.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@PhumlaniMMajozi
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
