South African Industry Minister Pravin Gordhan has been directed to negotiate with incoming Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter that he join his service at the power utility “earlier than expected”. De Ruyter is the new CEO of Eskom and is scheduled to start work on January 15, 2020, after the Christmas and New Year break.
Coming close on the heels of stage 6 load shedding for the first time, which forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to return to SA from an official trip to Egypt, the recent decision to advance the date of joining of the CEO is indicative of how the recent power cuts have trampled South African economy. South African administration is wary of the impact of the continuous load shedding on industry, domestic and export sector (South Africa exports power to neighboring countries including Zimbabwe).
Gordhan is expected to negotiate with De Ruyter to join duty earlier to the date he was contracted to commence on 15 January. That will give him and his team to address the complex issues at Eskom, including governance, financial management and improvement of operations. The high profile energy war room which is going to be set up will be chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza and will include Minister of Finance Mboweni, Minister of Energy Gwede Mantashe and Gordhan. The team is tasked to deal with any challenge relating to energy supply at Eskom.
