Kamogelo Muvhenzhe
With the country plagued by blackouts, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter dismissed calls for him to resign, saying he’s not going anywhere.
“I do not intend to resign of my own accord,” De Ruyter said during a media briefing on Tuesday.
On Monday, Black Business Council (BBC) called for De Ruter and the entire Eskom board to resign.
The BBC says De Ruyter has achieved nothing at the utility and has made things worse.
“We were overly optimistic when de Ruyter was appointed, as Eskom needed stability, but has since realised that two years later, the country has nothing to show but the highest number of blackouts in the history of our beloved South Africa” , the council said in a statement.
The call was supported by the National Union of Mineworkers, which said De Ruyter’s leadership sold South Africans a “dead cat”.
“They promised that they will resolve the problem of load-shedding in 18 months. They dismally failed to meet their set target. All we need is the leadership that will keep the lights burning,” the union said in a statement.
The power utility implemented stage 4 load shedding on Monday to last until Friday.
“We serve at the discretion and pleasure of the board. If the board sees it appropriate for me to resign, then that is their decision to make. We have had no conversations in this regard so far,” he said.
De Ruyter added that it was better to allow for the continuation of the current management to deal with the crisis.
Eskom expects units to return to service starting from Wednesday and to end load shedding at the weekend.
“We intend to pump the dams to maximum capacity and also replenish diesel reserves. The outlook for load shedding is that it will be reduced to stage 3 from Wednesday morning until Friday at 5 a.m. and then stage 2 until Saturday morning and then we will lift load shedding,” he said.
