Question NW638 to the Minister of Public Enterprises
19 May 2023 - NW638
Maotwe, Ms OMC to ask the Minister of Public Enterprises
With reference to his response to the interview of Mr A M de Ruyter, whereby he remarked that Mr A M de Ruyter focused too much on renewables instead of fixing existing plants of Eskom to ensure a stable supply of energy, (a) on what date did he realise that the conduct of Mr A M de Ruyter was a threat to Eskom’s ability to provide a stable supply of energy to the Republic and (b) what steps did he take upon realising that Mr A M de Ruyter was derailing Eskom?
Reply:
a) The role of the Shareholder representative is to ensure that the Board of a State-Owned Company (SOC) is held accountable and the Board in turn holds the Executive accountable. In the case of Eskom, the shareholder was concerned about the devastating impact of loadshedding on the households, businesses and the South African economy. On 30 September 2022, a new Eskom Board was reconstituted with a task to reposition Eskom to play a key role in the energy sector. Furthermore, the new Board had to deal with immediate loadshedding issues, procurement, elimination of corruption and ensuring that there is reliability of energy supply in the medium to long term.
It is for that reason that the Board had to evaluate the tenure of the former Eskom Executive management including Mr Andre De Ruyter to account for his tenure as the Eskom Group CEO. Unfortunately, in the course of the process, Mr De Ruyter choose to resign before the Board evaluation process.
b0 That was not for the shareholder to determine as explained in the above response, that was for the Board to determine unfortunately, Mr De Ruyter chose to resign before that evaluation process by the Board could commence.
Nonetheless, there were many engagements with the Board, Management and CEO on the declining performance of generation and my concerns about the lack of improvement in output of generation plant.
Remarks: Approved / Not Approved
Melanchton Makobe PJ Gordhan, MP
Acting Director-General Minister
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