For the past 10 years South Africa has seen different CEOs leading Eskom seeking ways to turn around the well-known corruption, debt and frequent power cuts affecting South Africans. On Monday the country was informed about the newly appointed Eskom CEO, following the position’s vacancy for the past four months after Phakamani Hadebe had resigned at the end of July 2019.
Former CEO of Nampak, the largest packaging company in Africa, Andre de Ruyter was appointed as the new CEO of Eskom and he will start his new position on 15 January 2020.
The new CEO evoked different opinions and emotions with the African National Congress commeding the new permanent CEO as they believe he will strengthen the capacity to deliver reliable energy. On the other hand, the Economic Freedom Front has expressed the new appointment of de Ruyter as anti-transformation and racist adding that the appointment of Andre is a strategy to privatise Eskom.
De Ruyter has not been popular for his leadership skills at Nampak as the company lost R24 billion during his tenure for the past five years. After Andre joined Nampak the oil price went into free-fall, which led to the collapse of Angola and Nigeria’s economies where Nampak had just built two big manufacturing plants. This led to Nampak losing profits as Nigeria and Angola prevented the company from benefitting profits and loan repayments, this starved the company which led to a serious debt ratio dropping to 37% at the end of September 2014 financial year then later dropped to 52% during the interim period in March.
Andre de Ruyter led Nampak for five years as the CEO and has an LLB and MBA from the University of South Africa and University of Pretoria respectively. South Africans are yet to witness the changes that de Ruyter will be bringing and if this will be the end of load shedding as it has a serious impact on the South African economy.
