Many South Africans woke up to the shocking news that Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has vacated his office “with immediate effect”.
Andre had announced his resignation last year and said he would be staying on board until the end of March.
Now everyone is in the dark as to what could have caused him to leave so abruptly.
To shed some light on the effects of his unceremonious exit, Drum talks to political analysts to unpack it all.
Dr John Molepo says many South Africans are probably glad that Andre is gone because he failed at the one job he had, to keep the lights on.
“South Africans currently are in need of electricity, and businesses have closed because of this. Surely South Africans are excited about his departure because he failed to restore electricity crisis in South Africa as promised. South Africa's want someone who can effect changes and demonstrate that the crisis can end."
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Dr Molepo says the average South African will not be affected by this exit.
“The Board decided to curtail his resignation. But I am worried about the handover to the incumbent. With such curtail, it is always going to be difficult for the person to handover and account.
“Though handover is important, but I think he also worked with a team and I think the team can assist the incumbent.”
Recently, Andre did a TV interview where he made certain revelations, including insinuating that senior officials are involved in the sabotage of the state entity.
“It was unfortunate that he made those remarks and he was not probed further. Perhaps it is high time that he accounts on those remarks made. The journalist also failed to probe further.
“Those remarks are bad for the ANC particularly knowing that the ANC led government appointed him to the position and he does this to them and the ANC currently do not want anything bad to its name.”
Dr Molepo adds that the new minister of electricity will have a huge responsibility, particularly with ending loadshedding.
“Citizens are angry and need immediate results. So his new responsibility should ensure and restore hopes to South Africans by bringing concrete plans to address this impasse.”
“That’s the ANC for you,” says Dr Ntsikelelo Breakfast, another political analyst.
“The ANC made him sound like he was going to the answer to all electricity problems and he hasn't.”
Dr Breakfast say the TV interview did a lot of damage.
“He implicated very senior people. The big question here is why did he sit on the information for so long and only use it on his way out.
“This premature exit will have negative implications on the running of the organization. It will also be difficult for the new person to do their job effectively when they have not been briefed. That is why handovers are extremely important.”
Dr Breakfast hopes there was someone working with Andre so they can step up in an acting position because they are already aware of all the challenges and strategies that Andre worked on.
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On the issue of the soon coming electricity minister, Dr Breakfast says he will not comment on the rightness or wrongness of it.
“I will say this though, it is nothing new to have a minister tasked to handle something like this. Because of the seriousness of the electricity crisis we are faced with, someone who will be like a project manager is needed.
“In the 1990s, there was minister Jay Naidoo who was a minister without a portfolio. His job was to focus on the roll out of RDP houses and when that was implemented, his office was closed or dissolved.
“We now have a problem of the ministers of public enterprises and mineral energy giving out mixed messages. It is as if they do not talk to each other. Obviously there is an overlap in their portfolios, but they are focused on different things.
“One is leaning towards renewable energy and the other is a traditionalist who wants to focus on the old way of making electricity, from coal.
“The problem we have with these two is that President Cyril Ramaphosa is also scared of them because he too wants to employ political survival strategies.”
