Andre de Ruyter crushed Eskom’s staff

Eskom’s morale under Dan Marokane versus Andre de Ruyter is chalk and cheese, with the utility now benefiting from increased productivity and improved performance from its employees. 

This has coincided with the utility’s significantly improved operational performance, which has translated into a substantial reduction in load-shedding. 

However, Eskom still has some time and plenty of work to do before it can say it has the right organisational culture, with that taking years of doing the right thing and rewarding good performance. 

This is feedback from Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati, who outlined some of the key reasons for the utility’s turnaround, emphasising the role of the management team and employees on the ground. 

“Eskom’s staff morale now is chalk and cheese compared to in the past,” Nyati told Newzroom Afrika. 

Prior to the current board and management team, Eskom had undergone immense leadership instability in the past decade and a half. 

In the 17 years from 2007 to 2024, the utility had 15 different CEOs in various forms. In contrast, from 1985 to 2007, Eskom only had three CEOs – Ian McRae from 1985 to 1994, Allen Morgan from 1994 to 2000, and Thulani Gcabashe from 2000 to 2007.

This instability had an effect throughout the utility, as skilled individuals left for jobs elsewhere while remaining employees’ productivity declined. 

Things became particularly bad during De Ruyter’s tenure, when he was accused of playing policeman rather than CEO because of his focus on criminal syndicates that included some employees within Eskom. 

Nyati described the situation the new board, appointed in October 2023, found itself in when it began to interact with Eskom employees and the management team. 

“When we landed in Eskom, there were hardly people within the head office. People were staying at home and exploiting the hybrid working model,” Nyati said. 

“You cannot afford that. You need to have people around who work as part of various teams. But, they were hardly there.” 

Nyati also outlined the messages the employees were getting from the management team prior to the current one led by Marokane.

“They found that each time they were listening to their leader, the leader was saying all sorts of things about them being the source of the problem,” Nyati said. 

“How can you be excited to come to work when you are being seen as the person who is creating the problem?” 

Nyati previously explained his surprise at how little support De Ruyter had from within Eskom due to his management of the utility. 

“He had a lot of support externally. What surprised me was that there was no support for De Ruyter in Eskom,” Nyati said.

“That is dangerous. Who are you leading when you see nobody is following you? That is the problem.”

Wrong person at the wrong time

Nyati’s criticism of De Ruyter’s time at Eskom follows on from comments made by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who said the former CEO’s appointment was a case of having the wrong skills for the wrong problem. 

“You need someone steeped in the electricity sector and who understands the technical requirements of Eskom’s plants,” Ramokgopa said. 

“When you are faced with a crisis, you must make sure that you get people with the right skills in the right positions.”

This does not mean that a single person can make all the difference at a company the size of Eskom, but it needs a leader with enough knowledge to hold the bureaucrats running the power stations accountable. 

“Of course, I am not about to suggest that an organisation of that size can be dragged down or pulled out of a difficult situation by one individual. But the leader sets the tone,” Ramokgopa said.

“The leader is the one who provides guidance and is the head of the group that must direct the organisation. But, ultimately, at a technical level, the buck stops with one person, and that is the CEO.” 

“So those are the lessons we learnt there. We know what not to do going forward. You need the right skills to resolve these problems.” 

He specified that these comments were not intended to cast aspersion, but merely to explain that there were lessons to be learned and unlearned from that experience.

“It goes without saying that the immediate predecessor to Mr Marokane was Mr De Ruyter,” Ramokgopa said, when asked who he was referring to.

Ramogkopa admitted that De Ruyter’s skills may have been the right set if Eskom had to solve a different problem rather than the load-shedding crisis. 

“If you are in the midst of a crisis, you don’t have the luxury of learning how a rotating machine works and how Eskom operates. That is the point I am trying to make,” Ramokgopa said. 

“I can’t go tomorrow and perform heart surgery. If I do, I will just facilitate your meeting with the maker. I am just a civil engineer.” 

“That is the point I am making. Unless you are resolving a different problem, then maybe his set of skills could be suited for that.”