In an interview with 702, Mamphweli explained that the best way forward is to fully implement President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan to fix Eskom under its current board and with its current CEO. “Firing the CEO at this particular point in time is just going to bring instability to Eskom. We don’t know who will come in and how the Eskom employees will receive that particular person,” Mamphweli said. “We are in a crisis. We’ve got a plan that cabinet announced through the President.” Ramaphosa’s plan includes bringing skilled engineers back to Eskom, incentivising the uptake of rooftop solar, and buying surplus capacity from independent power producers.
Mamphweli believes the plan can work, assuming all relevant ministers support it. “All of the ministers who are relevant to this particular challenge should support the President through supporting his plan,” he said. “That plan needs to be fully implemented under the current ministers and under the current CEO — the people who have knowledge of this particular plan.” Mamphweli said Eskom had seen more than 14 CEOs at its helm since 1996, and firing them has never solved the utility’s problems. “We know that Eskom has more than 14 CEOs since 1996 or so, and firing people has never resulted in stability at Eskom or resulted in the problem being solved,” he said.
“We need to stick to plans and implement plans.” This comes as minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan is facing mounting pressure to fire De Ruyter. Gordhan had reportedly presented the energy crisis plans to end load-shedding but was met with a mixed response, including calls from the ANC national executive committee (NEC) to sack Eskom’s CEO. “We wanted them to come with a solid solution,” an NEC member who wished to remain anonymous reportedly said. “From what we have had from De Ruyter, there is no solution. Every time he talks, he threatens us about stage 8. That is not a solution.” Afrikaans newspaper Rapport reported on Sunday that an ANC source who attended the meeting said members of the NEC are furious with De Ruyter. “There is anger because the power crisis is costing us votes.
If there’s load-shedding, then we lose votes — and there is always load-shedding,” they reportedly said. According to Gordhan, Eskom’s recently restructured board is responsible for deciding on the CEO’s future, and he called on them “act with urgency” regarding the handling of load-shedding. This came after Eskom ramped up its rotational power cuts to stage 6 due to several breakdowns and a need to conserve its emergency generation reserves. Minister of mineral resources and energy Gwede Mantashe accused Eskom of “actively agitating for the overthrow of the state” through intensified rotational power cuts. He believes the power cuts will be resolved when Eskom fixes its operational problems — something he claims can be achieved within half a year of focused maintenance.
