The fate of embattled Eskom boss Andre de Ruyter lies squarely in the hands of the newly elected board of the state-owned entity.
According to Deputy President David Mabuza, it is up to Eskom’s new board to decide whether De Ruyter is fit for the job or not.
Mabuza was answering questions in the National Assembly on Thursday on matters of national interest. He said the Presidency is happy that for the first time since 2018, a new board has been appointed to oversee the affairs of Eskom, noting that the new board consists of individuals who bring engineering, energy policy and delivery, and accounting expertise.
Mabuza said to show that the government is committed to good governance, “a competent, experienced, and capable board has been chosen to set up clear mechanisms to hold the executives accountable”.
“The board’s mandate is based on an existing shareholder agreement. It is our expectation that the board is empowered to run the affairs of Eskom in a diligent manner and adopt zero tolerance for poor performance, corruption, abuse of power, dishonesty, and conflicts of interest whenever such arise.
“This includes actions that try to undermine our efforts to build an energy utility that is financially stable and geared toward meeting its development imperative.”
Speaking about corruption and maladministration which have been discovered at the state-owned power utility, he said Eskom does not have the required capacity in terms of intelligence, and noted that law-enforcement authorities are on standby to try and clean up the entity.
“That’s why we have sourced intelligence under police to work with Eskom. The help is starting to yield results. We are starting to arrest people.”
Also read: Deputy President to face MPs about removal of Eskom boss
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
