Andre de Ruyter warns about dark days in South Africa

Former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter warned that South Africa could be plunged into darkness again if it does not urgently build new power stations.

De Ruyter shared this information during a discussion organized by the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

The discussion, led by MBA student May Manning, focused on his role as Eskom chief executive and moving from a fossil-fuel-powered world.

He argued that the developments in wind, solar, and battery storage now present credible alternatives to coal-fired power stations.

“We have the opportunity to be more sustainable without sacrificing anything,” he said in the discussion.

De Ruyter also sounded the alarm about South Africa’s energy security outlook, saying load shedding is not necessarily a thing of the past.

“We know, and Eskom knows, that there is an enhanced risk of load-shedding from 2029 onwards,” he said.

“We have a limited window of opportunity. We are enjoying a respite from load shedding as the retirement dates of many Eskom coal-fired power stations approach.”

He said load shedding was ended in South Africa through a fortunate confluence of events that led to the decreased demand and increased supply.

“We know that the private sector has invested enormously in its own generation to the tune of 6GW to 7GW of rooftop capacity, which is huge,” he said.

“It’s twice the size of a large coal-fired power station. That was done in the space of about 18 months.”

De Ruyter added that several maintenance projects and other initiatives that he started at Eskom have since been completed.

These projects, combined with the completion of the Medupi and Kusile power stations, added a large amount of electricity to the grid.

Load shedding can return to South Africa

On 13 March 2026, Eskom announced that South Africa had reached 300 consecutive days without load shedding.

Eskom credited this milestone to the continued recovery and strengthening of its generation fleet, anchored on the Generation Recovery Plan.

Although this is a positive development for South Africa and the economy, load shedding can return if the country does not take action.

De Ruyter said the break from load shedding will be short-lived unless it can bring substantial new generating capacity online within the next few years.

He argued that wind, solar, and battery storage are the solution to South Africa’s energy needs over the next few years.

He said that while nuclear power stations work well, they take a very long time to build and are very expensive.

“Nuclear power stations take forever to complete, 15 years, and have the tendency to be extraordinarily expensive with huge cost overruns,” he said.

“The same applies to coal. Not even the Chinese would finance new coal-fired power capacity in Africa. It’s still building some in China, but that’s rapidly diminishing.”

De Ruyter added that while gas seems attractive, South Africa has no reliable domestic gas resources.

This means that the country would have to import gas at great cost and with very little control over the price.

“For those who are technically minded, gas would be imported at a landed cost of about $10 per MMBtu, which makes gas very expensive,” he said.

He highlighted that affordable electricity is a major input cost and a creator of competitive advantage in an economy.

“You can’t just increase electricity tariffs to the point where, as is happening now, the economy starts to de-industrialise,” he said.