ANC government to blame for load-shedding – Andre de Ruyter

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter welcomed a court ruling which said the ANC government is to blame for load-shedding.

De Ruyter told Rapport that the North Gauteng High Court justifiably placed the blame for South Africa’s energy crisis where it belongs – the government.

He added that the ANC government’s decades-long mismanagement of South Africa’s electricity network plunged the country into an energy crisis.

De Ruyter’s comments followed the court ruling that load-shedding violates human rights and is, therefore, unconstitutional.

The lack of electricity through load-shedding breached the rights to human dignity, life, freedom, and security of the person.

It further created an environment that harmed people’s health and well-being and limited access to healthcare services, food, water, and education.

The court further ordered electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to ensure hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations are unaffected.

De Ruyter suggested that Eskom and the government use microgrid systems and diesel generators to abide by the court order.

The Presidency and affected departments said they noted the judgement handed down by the Pretoria High Court.

“The Presidency is studying the judgement and will, in due course, pronounce further steps on the matter,” it said.

De Ruyter’s comments followed shortly after former Eskom spokesman Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the ANC, and the ANC only, is responsible for South Africa’s electricity crisis.

Eskom appointed Mantshantsha to lead its media liaison team as national spokesperson on 1 February 2020, shortly after Andre de Ruyter took the reins.

He left Eskom at the end of February 2023, shortly after De Ruyter stepped down as CEO following a dispute with the power utility.

Mantshantsha commented on South Africa’s electricity crisis and Eskom’s collapse in a recent News24 column.

Ramokgopa told Parliament that no individual was responsible for Eskom’s deterioration and the country’s energy crisis.

He lambasted Ramokgopa’s claim that no individual was responsible for Eskom’s deterioration and the country’s energy crisis.

“This is pure nonsense. Maybe not one individual, no. But it is very clear that one party is culpable,” he said.

“The ANC is fully and entirely responsible for the crisis of electricity in South Africa for the past 17 years. Ramokgopa knows this. All of us do.”

“We all know the ANC’s policies and its practice of cadre deployment; direct and indirect looting of state institutions are the instruments it employed to the great devastation of those institutions.”