Mistakes at Eskom during Andre de Ruyter era

Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said poor leadership and low staff morale during the Andre de Ruyter era created an unproductive environment at Eskom.

This unproductive and mediocre environment means that Eskom’s employees did not do their best to fix problems at power stations to eradicate load-shedding.

On Friday, Eskom announced that South Africa has not experienced load-shedding since 26 March 2024, thanks to its successful Generation Operational Recovery Plan.

This is the longest stretch of uninterrupted power supply in five years, which is good news for economic growth and productivity.

Eskom’s Energy Availability Factor (EAF) has consistently exceeded 60% in the current financial year, with top-performing stations maintaining an EAF above 70%.

Many people speculated that the load-shedding reprieve since April 2024 was an election ploy by the ruling party and could not continue.

Eskom’s deteriorating performance and rolling blackouts became such a normal part of life in South Africa that very few people could conceive a quick turnaround.

Many experts predicted that load-shedding would return during winter as demand increased and power station breakdowns started to occur.

Earlier this year, De Ruyter told South Africans that the only reason load-shedding ended was because Eskom was burning billions in diesel.

“If the lights are on, well done. However, they are on because we are pouring money into diesel at a rate of knots,” he said.

However, Eskom’s latest data showed that its expenditure on Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) decreased significantly this year.

Eskom’s OCGTs expenditure is R12.06 billion, or 66%, lower than the R18.24 billion spent over the same period last year.

The OCGT load factor from 1 April 2024 to 17 October 2024 was 5.76 %, compared to 18.17% last year.

This data dismisses De Ruyter’s claim that the only reason the lights are on is because Eskom was burning diesel to run OCGTs.

Eskom during the Andre de Ruyter era

After Andre De Ruyter took the reigns at Eskom in January 2020, he told the nation that they had launched a reliability maintenance plan.

He told South Africans they could expect a much better performance from Eskom’s power stations and much lower load-shedding by September 2021.

However, this did not materialise. Load-shedding continued during his tenure as Eskom’s chief executive and reached record levels.

It raises the question of why the rapid change in Eskom’s performance did not happen during De Ruyter’s tenure.

Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa blamed poor leadership and low staff morale for Eskom’s deterioration during the Andre de Ruyter era.

Ramokgopa said one problem was that the previous leaders did not trust the employees to fix the crisis.

“The moment that you distrust your employees and lose confidence in them, you send the message that they don’t have the capability to solve the problem,” he said.

In turn, employees withdraw from trying to solve the problem. “They leave the leadership to their devices as they think they know better,” he explained.

Another problem was that, during the De Ruyter era, the view was perpetuated that everyone at Eskom was corrupt and incompetent.

There were also many reports from within Eskom that there were concerted efforts to collapse the organisation.

“There were indeed bad elements. However, most men and women at Eskom are competent, skilled, committed, and patriotic,” he said.

“All they needed to do their work is for someone to support them and provide an incentive dispensation.”

What changed at Eskom

What changed after De Ruyter’s departure is that the new Eskom leadership team strongly believes in the company’s employees.

Ramokgopa said that from the outset, he told the power station employees that they were the experts and, therefore, needed to resolve the problems.

“You need to show an appreciation for the rank and file. They must know that the resolution of the problem does not sit with the minister,” he said.

That means they were responsible for finding the solution, and the minister was secondary to resolving the problem.

He added that Eskom has highly experienced and competent employees and that there was no reason to think they needed outside people to solve the problems.

Another intervention was to reward good performance at power stations, which Eskom’s executive for generation Bheki Nxumalo championed.

This was done station-by-station, ensuring competition and comradery among workers at each Eskom power station.

This way of doing things worked. “It resolved many labour issues, and everyone is proud to wear the Eskom badge,” Ramokgopa said.