If this was to be explosive, De Ruyter should come out with the names of those ministers who are corrupt. Photographer: Michele Spatari/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Last year, I travelled to Pretoria to meet energy minister Gwede Mantashe. It’s become a tradition for Mantashe to summon me to his office, albeit after I’ve done the begging for a one-on-one interview.
On that day, the minister, who was already facing a barrage of criticism for his handling of the energy crisis, slipped in that Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter was “not the fixer” that Eskom needed to rescue it from the crisis.
What Mantashe was saying was that De Ruyter might have the necessary skills to be a competent chief executive but the power utility needed a super-chief executive. It needed a person who was innovative, daring and brave enough to pull the utility out of the grave.
I had come to Mantashe to talk about the ANC. He — the chairperson of the party running for re-election — was the story but I left with something even better, needless to say, it was the story on everyone’s lips that week.
It’s incredible to think that now, months after the minister made this statement, he could have been on to something.
In De Ruyter we thought we had conjured up a saviour. Someone who would pull us out of the wreckage caused by the so-called nine wasted years where Eskom had become a cash cow for dirty politicians and their friends in business.
De Ruyter would do the impossible, he would revive Eskom to its former glory and usher in a new era of competence, ethics and push back political influence.
But that, my friends, was just another fable we told ourselves to sleep better at night.
For me, it’s not that De Ruyter sat down with a journalist and told his story. Tell his story he must. To me, it’s the months leading up to his exposé and what he said in the now-talked about interview.
De Ruyter had every right to give insight on the state of Eskom, but why now? Why take this opportunity to muddy the waters. Why would he deem it fit to scare away any efforts to bring in investors to the country? Why make accusations and not have the nerve to back it up.
Surely, like most South Africans, De Ruyter is well-aware of the effect of corruption in the country. If he had any evidence of the corruption or corrupt ministers, by law, or at the very least his moral responsibility towards the parastatal, De Ruyter should have come forward to expose them.
It is unfair for him to make bold allegations and thereafter decide that he is leaving the country, while millions of South Africans are still suffering from the effects of load-shedding caused by sabotage and criminality.
If you are brave enough to take your claims to the media, I had hoped, sir, that you would be brave enough to take them to the relevant authorities.
Another sticking point in this interview was the former chief executive’s ease to ridicule the governing party. I must say, I found it hilarious that he would now claim that the ANC leaders’ reference to each other as comrades was ridiculous.
A man in his position was well-aware of the ANC when he took the position. Surely he would have known that to be a chief executive at the power utility meant that you had to deal with over-inflated egos of ANC politicians.
It could not have come as a surprise that he would be dealing with a parastatal that had been compromised by politicians who were hellbent on continuing with the entrenched political interference.
It couldn’t have come as a surprise that the parastatal was rife with corruption, that syndicates had sought, and probably succeeded, in capturing Eskom. No sir. I cannot accept that you came into this role as a sheep to the slaughter.
You knew what the job entailed, you knew the political climate. It was your decision to focus on policy equally, or maybe some might argue even more so, than the recovery of the power utility. No sir, you can never be made to feel like a victim.
Yes, De Ruyter, one can sympathise with you in some aspects. You had to contend with very territorial ministers, a lame-duck president who could never take charge and an entity which had been robbed of competent and skilled personnel.
One might go so far as to argue that while you had an idea of the corruption and criminality at the state entity, its severity was more pronounced when you took office at MegaWatt park. Granted the job was never easy, but it was never going to be easy.
However you paint the picture or try to clean up what’s left of your legacy, it is not lost on me that you have failed. Like the ANC that you now ridicule, you have made a mockery of this institution.
Thank you for your services.