André de Ruyter announced his resignation as Eskom CEO in December 2022 and had originally planned on leaving at the end of March.
However, in a Twitter statement, Eskom has announced that following a special Board meeting on 22 February, the Eskom Board and de Ruyter have come to the mutual agreement to reduce his notice period to 28 February 2023.
The Board further concluded that he would not need to serve the balance of his notice period, but instead would be released with immediate effect.
De Ruyter's resignation comes after claims from Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe, that Eskom was “agitating for the overthrow of the state” by failing to address the increasing levels of load shedding. The country has been experiencing the worst load shedding to date, due to increased breakdowns at multiple power states, with stage 6 being implemented indefinitely.
In a controversial interview with eNCA earlier this week, de Ruyter also made claims that linked the ANC to corruption at Eskom, connecting one unnamed minister in particular, however he provided no evidence to support these claims.
An acting CEO will be appointed in the meantime and Eskom will make an announcement shortly as to who this will be.
On Wednesday afternoon, Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, announced the 2023 budget speech where he said that National Treasury has proposed to provide Eskom with R254 billion in debt relief over the next three years.
Of the R254 billion debt relief, R168 billion will be in capital while R86 billion will be in interest, said the the National Treasury in its 2023 Budget Review document.
