{"id":537585,"date":"2024-05-18T22:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=537585"},"modified":"2024-05-19T01:03:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T23:03:22","slug":"andre-de-ruyter-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/537585-andre-de-ruyter-under-attack.html","title":{"rendered":"Andre de Ruyter under attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Eskom CEO Andr\u00e9 de Ruyter is accused of misinformation about the reduced load-shedding and being out of his depth when running the power utility.<\/p>\n

The accusations followed De Ruyter\u2019s claims that the main reason for the respite from load-shedding in recent weeks was due to Eskom burning diesel \u201cat a rate of knots\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told delegates at the PSG Financial Services Annual Conference that Eskom\u2019s current diesel budget is R24 billion, four times more than when he was in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, if the lights are on, it is because they are pouring a considerable amount of money into diesel at a rate of knots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

De Ruyter also claimed that the lower load-shedding is thanks to his and Jan Oberholzer\u2019s maintenance plan.<\/p>\n

He explained that maintaining an Eskom generation unit requires around 18 months of planning, including budgeting and contractor identification.<\/p>\n

\u201cJan and I put in place most of the planned maintenance outages, which are currently delivered and contributing to the somewhat improved results we are seeing from the coal fleet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that Eskom is unfixable, and while it may still be around for years to come, the utility will never be restored to its former glory.<\/p>\n

De Ruyter added<\/a> that South Africans must abandon their nostalgia for when the country had cheap power produced by Eskom that was available 24\/7.<\/p>\n

He said the only logical outcome of Eskom\u2019s reform and restructuring is that the company will be unbundled into three divisions \u2013 generation, transmission and distribution.<\/p>\n

He explained that Eskom would inevitably become smaller as coal power stations reached the end of their lifespan and were decommissioned.<\/p>\n

Gwede Mantashe takes aim at De Ruyter<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy<\/p><\/div>\n

De Ruyter\u2019s claims caused a backlash from Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati.<\/p>\n

Mantashe said De Ruyter was out of his depth as Eskom\u2019s chief executive, describing it as a \u201cmis-appointment\u201d.<\/p>\n

News24 reported<\/a> that Mantashe told voters during a rally in Tembisa that De Ruyter did not have the qualifications to lead Eskom.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou take a lawyer and deploy him to a technical institution, and he won\u2019t know the difference between wood and forest,\u201d Mantashe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you do a mis-appointment, you destroy the institution and the individual\u2019s capability because you deploy an alpha in an area that requires a fixer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean the manager is not skilled. You are just using the skills incorrectly. You damage the individual, and you damage the institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Eskom now has an engineer leading the company, which resulted in improved performance and reduced load-shedding.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Mantashe took aim at De Ruyter for Eskom\u2019s poor performance under his reign.<\/p>\n

In December 2022, Mantashe accused Eskom<\/a>, under De Ruyter\u2019s leadership, of \u201cactively agitating for the overthrow of the state\u201d.<\/p>\n

His accusations came amidst Eskom implementing stage 6 load-shedding as power plants suffered breakdowns.<\/p>\n

Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati hits back at De Ruyter<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati<\/p><\/div>\n

Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati also dismissed De Ruyter\u2019s comments, saying he cannot claim his work<\/a> is behind the lower load-shedding.<\/p>\n

Nyati explained that Eskom\u2019s improved performance resulted from a plan put together 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was developed with management, presented to the Eskom board, and approved in March 2023,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The plan focused on accelerating and executing planned maintenance. However, it differed from the planned maintenance under De Ruyter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has changed is that we partnered with the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we take a plant down, we work with people with deep expertise about the equipment used at that plant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, maintenance was done by people with limited or no understanding of the equipment at the plants.<\/p>\n

Nyati said this was done over a year. \u201cIt was a very difficult period, and we had to spend a lot of money on diesel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He explained that OCGTs were necessary to compensate for the generation units taken offline for maintenance.<\/p>\n

The plan worked. The generation units returning to service were far more reliable than before, helping to limit load-shedding.<\/p>\n

Nyati added that De Ruyter had left Eskom before executing the new maintenance plan. \u201cHe cannot claim credit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key person implementing this plan, who was appointed in March 2023, is Bheki Nxumalo, Eskom\u2019s group executive generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNxumalo is the key person who was held accountable for implementing the new maintenance plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nyati added that the high diesel budget and OCGT use were necessary to support the big maintenance drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Eskom CEO Andr\u00e9 de Ruyter is accused of misinformation about the reduced load-shedding and of being out of his depth when running the power utility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":481207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[61891,181,10670,35,8487,3192],"class_list":["post-537585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-andre-de-ruyter","tag-eskom","tag-gwede-mantashe","tag-headline","tag-load-shedding","tag-mteto-nyati"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537589,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537585\/revisions\/537589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}