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BusinessTech reports that up to 27 black executives were approached for the position of Eskom chief executive officer, but all turned it down. The Ministry of Public Enterprises last week announced Andre de Ruyter as Eskom’s new group chief executive.
De Ruyter is currently the CEO at Nampak and will commence his duties at Eskom on 15 January 2020. According to the Sunday Times, Eskom’s board compiled a list of candidates for the role, and hired a recruitment agency to contact them. “All of them said no. A lot of black executives don’t want anything to do with state-owned entities,” a government source told the newspaper. This was due to a stigma of political interference and the fact that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have “ruined a lot of careers and expectations”. Yet, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the two largest unions at Eskom, criticised De Ruyter’s appointment as a setback to the country’s racial-transformation agenda. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said the decision was racist and a deliberate attempt to diminish the role blacks played in the economy. Business Unity SA and the Black Business Council both noted that De Ruyter was appointed after a thorough process and they said they were committed to working with him. The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) also welcomed the appointment. “Inasmuch as the country’s transformational agenda should be supported, critical positions should be filled based on merit,” commented political analyst Sethulego Matebesi.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at BusinessTech
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