Gordhan made my life difficult – De Ruyter

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s involvement in the utility’s operations made his life as the responsible accounting officer difficult. 

This formed part of a discussion during his appearance before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

Scopa invited De Ruyter to brief the committee following his tell-all interview with eNCA in which he made serious allegations against ANC politicians and top government officials.

DA MP Alf Lees asked De Ruyter about a comment made in this eNCA interview, where the former CEO alleged that the department of public enterprises “played a very interventionist role in Eskom” and was “micromanaging Eskom”.

De Ruyter said Gordhan is “known for a style that can be characterised as being extremely involved in operational detail”. 

He said Gordhan’s extensive involvement went as far as individual power station units and speaking to middle-ranking officials in the organisation.

De Ruyter said there were many examples of Gordhan’s intervention in the utility’s day-to-day operations. The minister bypassed the former CEO, his COO, and Eskom’s head of generation.

“Whether that was to gain information or to verify information, I don’t know, but it made life as the responsible accounting officer quite difficult,” he said.

“Many different cooks in the kitchen do not always result in a good meal.”

De Ruyter also said the new Eskom board was more “activist” than the previous board and could be seen as an “overreach”. The board was partly why he resigned as CEO.