Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has described former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter as a self-centred human being who believes they are the best thing since sliced bread.
Gordhan appeared before the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in parliament on Wednesday, where he was grilled on allegations by De Ruyter that he knew of the malfeasance networks operating at Eskom.
The minister said he did not take De Ruyter seriously for the ex-chief executive has since revealed himself as an individual whose ego is very fragile and cannot bring himself into accepting the mess he caused at the power utility and take responsibility for it.
According to Gordhan, De Ruyter was a “narcissistic individual” and this is epitomized in the book he has released where he portrays himself as a hero while mocking the political leadership in the country.
For this, Gordhan believes that Scopa should let him and his deputy focus on “better things” instead of amplifying De Ruyter’s ego trip that culminated in a book and the bombshell interview he conducted with eNCA before he was fired.
Also, charged Gordhan, he was never going to confront his cabinet colleagues that De Ruyter alleged were behind the “cartels” which are sabotaging Eskom, because such claims were unsubstantiated.
Gordhan further distanced himself from De Ruyter’s covert intelligence operation within Eskom in which he pretended to be investigating malfeasance when such investigation headed by an ex-apartheid spook was never sanctioned by the board of Eskom.
“As far as the so-called De Ruyter’s intelligence operation is concerned, he did not discuss the project with me at any length, he merely mentioned it in passing, saying he was doing it because law-enforcement agencies are not coming to the party,” said Gordhan.
He further said De Ruyter was a schemer, because even the mentioning of the intelligence operation in passing happened in July when he had already been digging behind everyone’s back since January 2022.
“De Ruyter was operating on his own free will on this project. At the same time, he was also writing a book instead of focusing on his job of keeping the power stations going and providing electricity to South Africans.”
He also charged that De Ruyter was one of those people who “find it difficult for their ego to take a knock”, and the book was evidence to support this.
“What about saying sorry, I did my best and I did what I could do. You do not go around making [unfounded] allegations about individuals because that is character assassination. Some would say that is a narcissistic behaviour,” fumed Gordhan.
“He showed very poor accountability, another example of a lone ranger operating. He went to overseas meetings, meeting people that should be met at a political level. What has been lacking here is a little bit of humility, which meant he did not have the ability to listen and reflect.
“But maybe it did not apply to him as a sophisticated person who thinks he is better than all of us put together.
“Everything now is about enhancing one individual’s reputation and making sure that anyone who stands in the way is painted with all sorts of brush to indicate how stupid, how idiotic, and inadequate they are.
“Suddenly there is only one hero in town, and that is Mr De Ruyter.”
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