Black Engineers' Society Slams Pravin Gordhan for Defending e Ruyter: “His Tenure at Eskom Was a Disaster”

• The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has taken exception to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan's defence of Andre de Ruyter
• Gordhan claimed the outgoing CEO had done his best to get Eskom out of loadshedding
• The NSBE president, Mdu Mlaba said De Ruyter's time as CEO of Eskom was a disaster, and Gordhan's defence of him was bizarre

JOHANNESBURG - The president of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and former Eskom engineer Mdu Mlaba has called Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan out for his constant defence of outgoing Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter.

According to the NSBE president, De Ruyter's tenure at the helm of the struggling power utility has been a disaster, and his organisation would not shy away from calling the outgoing CEO.

Mlaba said:

"As engineers, we don’t say things just be popular or to go with the flavour of the month, we are guided by data."

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The former Eskom engineer added that the power utility had deteriorated severely with De Ruyter as CEO, with 2022 being the worst year in the power utility history.

Last week, Public Enterprises Minister Gordhan came to the defence of De Ruyter, claiming that the Eskom CEO tried his best to get the power utility out of the mess it is in, SABC News reported.

Mlaba rubbished Gordhan's defence by saying that it was bizarre. The NSBE president claimed that De Ruyter was out of his depth and did not have the technical know-how to lead the power utility out of loadshedding.

According to City Press, Mlaba added that the outgoing Eskom CEO made his biggest mistake when he failed to conduct maintenance on the power utility's current fleet while blaming previous CEOs for Eskom's problems.

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Here's what South Africans had to say about Mlaba's criticisms of Gordhan:

Vuyo Olie Daca commented:

"I don't know what's wrong with our people. It's not rocket science. He has his team that deliberately collapses State SOEs."

John Jones added:

"Actually, what's more bizarre is that the cANCer has had a tenure to govern the country and that can't exactly be termed a success by any measure."

Jonathan Jacobs claimed:

"Its all dumb racist talk by fool’s and thieves."

Art Wk accused:

"He wants the job that’s all! A comrade that needs his fingers in the Eskom till!"

Eskom: De Ruyter sad he failed at achieving his objectives, SA reacts: “If only excuses generated electricity”

In a related story, Briefly News reported André de Ruyter briefed the media on Thursday about why he resigned as Eskom CEO.

De Ruyter expressed disappointment at failing to achieve the personal goals he set for himself as the top dog at the power company.

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He said he decided to quit to make way for the newly appointed board to appoint a better-suited candidate qualified to do the job.

Source: Briefly News