Eskom investigating poisoning incident of outgoing CEO Andre de Ruyter

Eskom and the South African Police have vowed to leave no stone unturned after an attempt to poison outgoing CEO Andre de Ruyter.

It has come to the attention of this website that the power utility on Sunday said police were investigating whether an attempt was made to poison its outgoing CEO.

According to Reuters, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said the alleged incident “will be thoroughly investigated” and anyone responsible charged.

Without giving any details, Gordhan said there is an intense battle taking place “between those who want South Africa to work and thrive and those who want to corruptly enrich themselves”.

Faced with political pressure, De Ruyter resigned on December 14 – his last day in office will be March 31 – after failing to solve a crisis in Eskom that has led to record power cuts in Africa‘s most industrialised economy.

After officially taking office in January 2020, De Ruyter led a company-wide clampdown on corruption and organised criminal behaviour, including sabotage of infrastructure, at Eskom plants.

“Eskom cannot comment further on the poisoning incident involving the group chief executive, which occurred during December 2022, as the matter is subject to the police investigation,” the utility’s head of security said in a statement.

Per Engineering News, Reuters could not immediately reach De Ruyter for comment and the alleged cyanide poisoning was first reported by specialist energy publication EE Business Intelligence on Saturday.

Political parties such as the Democratic Alliance on Sunday called for decisive action against criminal syndicates that it said were “hell-bent on cementing their stranglehold on Eskom that is destroying the economy”.

At the same time, the South African police did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment while Eskom’s board chairman Mpho Makwana was also unavailable.