THE recent improved performance in keeping the lights on by temporarily replacing load shedding with load reduction has not gone unnoticed.

This as some energy experts argue that former Eskom Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter will not only be remembered for nearly bringing Eskom to its knees but for wasting even more much-needed billions of rands in burning diesel and still failed to keep the lights on.

A few months ago, the Public Enterprise Department revealed in Parliament that Eskom had spent R65 billion in diesel to power Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGT) to generate power.

It further indicated that in 2023 alone, Eskom spent more than R23bn on diesel to reduce the severity of load shedding. By indication, this was still much more than what De Ruyter spent during his tenure.

De Ruyter’s three-year stint at Eskom ran from January 2020 to February 2023. During that time, the power utility reported losses of R25 billion, R11.9 billion, and R23.9 billion for the 2020/21, 2021/22, and 2022/23 financial years, respectively.

This tarnished De Ruyter’s reputation after recording the most significant annual loss to date for the entity.

Energy expert Adil Nchabeleng argued in an opinion piece published last month by our sister paper Cape Times titled “There is yet life in De Ruyter’s dead horse” in reference to De Ruyter’s comments made in 2021 that Eskom was a dead horse - said that “most of the diesel spent over the five years was during De Ruyter’s tenure at Eskom.”

“Under his leadership, Eskom’s power plants performance also took a major downturn in performance.

“Despite exposing huge levels of corruption, very little blame has been attributed to De Ruyter for his lack of leadership and management skills in turning around Eskom and fixing the ailing power stations. His performance as Eskom CEO plunged South Africa into worse levels of load shedding than before.”

Nchabeleng stated that this was the reason why “Eskom got hot under the collar at the attack by De Ruyter.”

This was in contrast to De Ruyter’s recent disputed claims that Eskom was burning more diesel to keep the lights on, a claim disputed by both Eskom and the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).

“This as De Ruyter’s recent claims are not supported by the facts. The current Eskom budget for diesel in the current financial year (April to June 2024) is R5.8bn, and R1.16bn has been spent as of May 9, 2024 (19.7% of the total budget).

“Contrary to media reports and speculation, Eskom’s use of OCGTs is closely monitored, and their role is strategic rather than extensive.

“De Ruyter helped fan the flames of public suspicion around the recent suspension of load shedding for the past 50 days as speculation abounds that the government has been burning diesel to keep the lights on ahead of the elections,” wrote Ntshabeleng.

He commended Eskom's management and leadership for improvements, adding that while the demand was low, the industry was exploring alternative energy sources to avert further disruptions in their production circles.

“To me the matter is simple. South Africans just want electricity, they don’t care much about corridor politics within Eskom and its ministries and the ruling and opposition.

“People just want guaranteed electricity to rebuild their lives, create opportunities for trade and industry, work and secure incomes, and live happily. The government must give special attention to the electricity generation sector,” he said.

While some in the media commentators continue to hail De Ruyter’s performance, BusinessTech published in July five names of individuals it said were responsible for the Eskom improvement, De Ruyter did not appear on the list, in fact, the acting CEO after his departure was listed as the “unsung hero”.

Those who appeared were Electricity Minister Kgosientso Ramokgopa, Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati, CFO Calib Cassim, CEO Dan Marokane, and generation executive Bheki Nxumalo.

Eskom chairperson Mteto Nyati said the entity's performance improvement was made possible by leadership changes, its maintenance plan, and great execution.

Meanwhile, De Ruyter, who now lives abroad after fleeing the country fearing for his life after he claimed his life was under threat, said in May during one of his many public virtual engagements that Eskom, an entity he was once hired to turn-around but failed to do so - would always play a role in energy generation but this role would be limited to electricity transmission.

Efforts to solicit comment from De Ruyter were unsuccessful as his contact details no longer worked. Eskom media desk said they no longer had his contact details.

thabo.makwakwa@inl.co.za

Thabo Makwakwa

De Ruyter burnt billions and still failed at Eskom