Andre de Ruyter has a new job

Andre de Ruyter is currently doing some consulting for renewable energy companies, with the former Eskom CEO believing the technologies have a significant role to play in South Africa’s future energy security. 

He also describes himself as an “itinerant scholar” through his stints teaching and researching at Yale and Oxford over the past two years since leaving the position of Eskom CEO. 

This is quite a similar path to his former right-hand man at Eskom, Jan Oberholzer, who has consulted for renewable energy companies and is now chair of Mulilo Energy. 

De Ruyter revealed what he has done in the two years since being Eskom CEO in a brief Q&A session after a speech at the second annual BizNews Investment Conference. 

He spent much of his speech drawing parallels between the situation South Africa is currently in and the era immediately preceding the end of Apartheid. 

However, in the Q&A session, most of the questions focused on De Ruyter’s time at Eskom and what he has done since. 

“I was very fortunate to be able to accept an invitation to go and teach at Yale. A fantastic experience and a great opportunity to decompress, it was great not being recognised,” De Ruyter said. 

“Being in the US is a complete eye-opener in terms of the size of the economy. The South African economy is probably smaller than most American states.” 

“That is how small we are. We are tiny and insignificant, and we must let go of our delusions of grandeur. We are really a small country.” 

De Ruyter said he spent a lot of his time talking to some exceptionally smart people among the Yale faculty and is lucky to call some of them his friends. 

Following his stint at Yale, De Ruyter took his family on a road trip around the United States, spending time in the ‘flyover’ states before journeying through California and back to the East Coast. 

“I did a cross-country trip from Connecticut through the Southern States to California and up through California to come back through the Northern States,” De Ruyter said. 

“This was an eye-opener to see the size of America and see how wholesome the flyover states are. These are good, solid people.” 

Oxford and consulting

Following his time in America, De Ruyter went to Oxford to spend more time teaching and engaging with faculty. 

De Ruyter did not go into detail about his time at Oxford, but it can be assumed that he fulfilled a similar post to the one he held at Yale as a senior lecturer on renewable energy and the green economy market.

“So, I guess my best job description at the moment is being an itinerant scholar, while also doing some consulting for renewable energy companies,” De Ruyter said. 

“I still believe it has a significant role to play in South Africa’s energy solutions going forward. That is pretty much it, and trying to fly below the radar.”

De Ruyter’s time consulting for renewable energy companies is similar to that of former Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer. 

Oberholzer was De Ruyter’s right-hand man during their time at Eskom. In this role, he advocated for the privatisation of some of the utility’s assets and a significant rollout of renewable energy.

After conducting extensive consulting for renewable energy projects and companies, Oberholzer was appointed as chairman of Mulilo Energy. 

Over the past 18 months, the business has consistently won and advanced major projects, cementing its role as a key contributor to South Africa’s energy transition.

Oberholzer has been the company’s chair throughout these 18 months, with the former Eskom COO appointed in September 2023. 

A push toward clean energy at Eskom is “the right thing to do, given where the world is currently”, Oberholzer said in a phone interview with Bloomberg after his appointment at Mulilo.

Oberholzer said the utility may have to change how it does business, given that Eskom’s grid will also have to expand dramatically to accommodate more generation capacity.

“Maybe it’s time to allow private participation in that environment because of the magnitude of the work that needs to happen,” he said.

Mulilo plans to add around 5,000 MW to the South African grid in the coming years, with the company being well-positioned to benefit from the opening of the sector to private competition.