De Ruyter sees the light, despite critics
Eskom CEO is confident electricity supply will improve in the near future
Despite calls for his head to roll amid devastating load-shedding, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says the utility is making inroads in fixing “the mess I inherited”.
He says employees are working up to 18 hours a day to ensure the power stays on.
“We have some of the best and most experienced system engineers who are ensuring our network remains stable in spite of the challenges,” De Ruyter told the Sunday Times.
He confirmed he was in a meeting this week with President Cyril Ramaphosa, who cancelled his visit to New York City, where he was to attend the UN General Assembly, so he could fly home after Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on Monday to deal with SA’s power crisis.
Asked what was discussed, De Ruyter replied: “Fixing Eskom.”
He added: “We are busy with repairs and bringing units back. The process is taking longer than we and the country want and other units will also go offline as units come back. We foresee that we will lower loadshedding from level 5 over the weekend to level 3, depending on the performance of the system.
“Also, Koeberg 2 has received approval from the NNR [National Nuclear Regulator] to start up and the process has begun.”
Asked if his priority as CEO was ending load-shedding or creating new avenues of generation, De Ruyter said both were important.
“Our first priority is to get existing plants to perform as well as possible, so load-shedding can be lightened.
“We can, however, not remove our foot from the pedal to keep adding new generating capacity including the two Koeberg units that have not yet been put in operation, possible gas projects as well as renewable energy.
“If we stop adding capacity over the medium term the problem will only worsen. So both priorities are equally important. New capacity will enable us to solve load-shedding.”
De Ruyter remains steadfast. “I would have had peace with the pressure I am under if I deserved it. This is a mess I inherited.”
He believes that the plans Eskom is implementing will work, including deploying experienced former employees where they are most needed.
“The situation with the ex-employees is a fluid situation. We have already employed two of them one at Koeberg and the other in Mpumalanga. They are both ex-employees that we went and fetched.”
Trade union Solidarity supplied him with a list of 300 experienced engineers and former Eskom employees months ago, but De Ruyter said his organisation was not limited to the list.
“We are throwing the net wide.
“The first list of 70 engineers Solidarity sent us coincidentally consisted of only white people. We have now thrown our doors open to crowdsourcing if you want to come and help, send us your CV.”
De Ruyter said claims that he was “trying to bring apartheid back” by only hiring white people were untrue and he only wanted the best person for the job.
“It is like your house burning and your neighbour brings his hosepipe but you wave him away saying: ‘That is a green hosepipe, I prefer a blue one.’”
While the department of public enterprises this week said 18 former Eskom staff members had been employed, De Ruyter said only two had so far been rehired.
“Eight more are in the process of finalising contracts. We hope to have them employed in October. The group we are looking at is a group of mixed races.
“The two returning employees have been welcomed back. Yesterday [Thursday] at Kriel power station, a union representative said: ‘Don’t bring back the old ones. Rather train the young ones.’ But I explained that the transfer of skills is an important part of this plan. The guys who are brought back will be incentivised to transfer skills, to train and to empower less experienced colleagues.”
Asked why only two had been employed so far, De Ruyter said they had to identify needs and, where needed, create positions or move people.
“We also have to negotiate, sign contracts, and they have to give notice where applicable.”
He said ex-employees raising their hands “is an overwhelmingly positive move”.
“It is easy to criticise from the sidelines, but these guys are prepared to roll up their sleeves. Some of them offered to come and help in exchange for just travel expenses and accommodation.
“Of course we could never do this. But it shows the spirit of those involved. I know patriotism is not a fashionable word, but it is an important word. We must employ and deploy volunteers of all races and do it quickly.”
He remains positive for the future, despite the challenges.
“We can make it. What keeps me going is the possibility of creating more capacity, specifically in Mpumalanga, where moving away from coal will have the biggest impact.”
He said some plans were already afoot. “On Monday we will be signing agreements with people who will rent land from Eskom to generate renewable energy. That will add 2,000MW to the grid.
“It is not our only iron in the fire. We are going to make 31,000ha available for rental for renewable energy. We want to add another 7,000MW by doing this.
“But everything takes time, which we as a nation don’t have. Just an environmental impact study takes 18 months. Erecting a structure then takes another two years.”
He said support from the government was making the mountain easier to climb.
“The president lifting the constraints on private generation of electricity is a massive step in the right direction. We have to start unlocking the private sector’s healthy balance sheets. This will have to happen, and happen more and more.”
The corporate sector was also needed in overcoming challenges.
“We are in negotiations with Vodacom. They want to start their own green power generation for their towers, but how do they get the electricity to the towers? That is where we will come in.”
He said employees were working hard. “Some of them have 16- to 18-hour days, but we need to remove the obstacles in their way like corruption, for instance, suppliers who threaten management.”
He gave a recent example.
“A cleaning contractor at Majuba was paid R1.3m upfront, allegedly so he could buy equipment. His employees have brooms, but I am sure he did not buy R1.3m worth of brooms. Now his guys are striking because of nonpayment while he drives to the station in his new G-Wagon.”
De Ruyter said he was worried about management decisions Eskom had taken in recent years.
“We are a technocracy that is turning into a bureaucracy. That is not how Eskom must be run. We should be run by electrical and mechanical engineers people who can do maths.”
Rehiring experienced employees is one way to fix that.
“It will not make an overnight difference, but it will help a lot. Even with something small, like how to fix a water pump. You don’t know what you don’t know.
“We have lost a lot of institutional knowledge and skills. If you have all the degrees in the world and you arrive at your first job, the way you see things being done will be the way you will do things.”
This week he spent Wednesday and Thursday on a tour of power stations.
“At Majuba, I opened the tool cupboards and the tools were dirty and not stored in the right way. These are basic things good leadership on site would fix.”
He said getting angry helped nobody.
“It doesn’t help to shout and scream. That would be like bayoneting the wounded. These employees are doing 16- to 18-hour days. I have to inspire, motivate and support them.”
He feels the organisation needs to “work smarter and remove obstacles like corruption while addressing liquidity”.
“We recently finished a skills audit, so we know exactly where the gaps are. We also need to get the Eskom Academy of Learning back on its feet again. It used to be an institution of excellence but has fallen into disrepair.
“When I visited them the first thing I requested was that they cut the lawn. It is the little things.”
He is not oblivious to the suffering of South Africans.
“Eskom is systemic to our economy. The messages I receive range from big shots in the manufacturing industry saying their factories are at a standstill to pensioners who have to keep their insulin cold as well as matrics who have to study in the dark.”
The fixes, said De Ruyter, were clear.
“We need more time to add capacity, we need more money and we need Nersa [the National Energy Regulator of SA]. Municipalities owe us R50bn. People only pay for something if there are consequences to not paying, which is not currently the case everywhere.”
Dead wood and criminality were massive problems.
“We are taking a hard look at our procurement processes. We need to identify nonvalue-adding intermediaries and stop doing business with them.
“These are the people with huge margins who get paid R300 for a light bulb while someone else supplies the light bulb and they only process the invoice.”
We are a technocracy that is turning into a bureaucracy. That is not how Eskom must be run. We should be run by electrical and mechanical engineers — people who can do maths André de Ruyter
Eskom CEO