Business group wants Eskom CEO to resign after stage 4 load shedding hits

The Black Business Council has called for the resignation of Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter and other senior executives after another round of stage 4 load shedding hit the country this week.

In a statement published on Monday evening (8 November), the group said that while it was initially hopeful for de Ruyter’s tenure, it is now calling for him and the entire Eskom board to step down due to their inability to stop the prolonged energy blackouts.

“The BBC was overly optimistic when de Ruyter was appointed as Eskom needed stability but has since realised that two years later, the country has nothing to show but the highest number of blackouts in the history of our beloved South Africa,” said Kganki Matabane, chief executive of the council.

He added that the entire Eskom leadership is wholly overwhelmed, inept and out of its depth.

“The country has been experiencing the blackouts since 2008, and 13 years later, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The continuous excuse of blaming the state capture instead of solving the current problem, while it could have been valid, is disingenuous and tired.

“The inability to stabilise Eskom will only lead to the country being downgraded, resulting in the increase in the already record-breaking unemployment rate, further economic contraction and scaring of international investors,” he said.

The council’s statement comes after Eskom announced that it will be moving to stage 4 load shedding until 05h00 on Saturday (13 November).

“While Eskom regrets the escalation in load shedding, it is necessary to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves which have been utilised extensively this morning as we are not getting the reduction in demand as expected from the implementation of stage 2 load shedding.

“It was anticipated that an additional seven units would have returned to service by Monday, and this has not materialised. Further, a generating unit at Arnot power station tripped this morning, contributing to the shortages.”

Eskom has warned in a summer load shedding forecast for 2021/2022 that its system is likely to remain severely constrained for the near future.

For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:

• City of Johannesburg
• City of Ekurhuleni 
• City of Tshwane 
• City of Cape Town (PDF)
• Nelson Mandela Bay
• eThekwini
• Manguang
• Buffalo City

For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.