The Citizen reports that the Black Business Council (BBC) has called for Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter and the entire board to step down over the electricity crisis in the country.

Though the BBC was among the first to congratulate De Ruyter on his appointment in November 2019, it said it had realised two years later that the country had nothing to show but the highest number of blackouts in its history. The power utility is currently implementing stage 4 load shedding until 5am on Friday, and will then downgrade to stage 2 until Saturday morning. “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,” said Eskom on Monday. In response, the BBC said it was clear the Eskom leadership was “out of its depth”. “The BBC is of the view that the country should acknowledge that the Eskom leadership is completely overwhelmed, inept and out of its depth. They simply don’t seem to be able to have a handle on this crisis and as such, should be let go as there appear to be no prospect in sight for any improvement of this serious situation,” said CEO Kganki Matabane on Monday. He indicated that the prolonged power cuts were affecting businesses badly and were also chasing investors away as no one would want to invest in a country where the power supply was not stable. Matabane said blaming state capture for the energy crisis was a “tired excuse”.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Vhahangwele Nemakonde at The Citizen

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