Andre de Ruyter, the man who saved South Africa's electricity grid from collapsing this week, has resigned as the Group Chief Executive Officer of Eskom.
De Ruyter was due to leave the power utility at the end of March 2023.
But a recent explosive interview with eNews Channel, in which he implied the ruling party and leaders of the government see Eskom as a feeding trough, has sped up his exit.
De Ruyter implied corruption was entrenched at Eskom and "comrades" were lining up their pockets.
Eskom announced his exit in a statement on Wednesday: "Following a special board meeting on 22 February 2023, the board and De Ruyter reached a mutual agreement," adding, "he will be released from his position with immediate effect."
Since his arrival, De Ruyter correctly identified massive instances of sabotage as being responsible for load shedding.
He exposed incidents of theft of coal, theft of diesel, procurement irregularities and dodgy contracts just being allowed to exist.
Low quality coal is sent to Eskom, often with rocks that end up destroying generators, forcing them to go into maintenance and increasing the risk of load shedding.
Unscrupulous businesses that have maintenance contracts with Eskom, along with a long value chain in the maintenance and supplier belt, all benefit from breakdowns at the R460 billion power company.
In the interview that appears to have cooked his goose, De Ruyter said: "I expressed my concern to a senior government minister about attempts - in my view - to water down governance around the $8.5 billion US dollars that, by and large through Eskom intervention, we got at COP26.
"The response was essentially, 'you know, you have to be pragmatic - in order to pursue the greater good, you have to enable some people to eat a little bit'. So yes, I think it is entrenched."
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He said the government was not interested in fixing Eskom for the long term or solving the country's energy crisis.
"There is very little explanation for the vociferous opposition to the Just Energy Transition," he said. One explanation for the pushback is that there is no clear path "showing a way for the comrades to eat".
"There are so many vested interests in the coal value chain that the threat of decarbonisation - even though we're talking about a multi-decade move away from coal - that is why it is so eagerly opposed," he said.
Largely regarded as the only man willing to tell the country the real truth about the Eskom crisis, De Ruyter appears to have gone too far with his truth this time around.
While the ANC has implied the load shedding crisis can be resolved within six to 12 months, De Ruyter confirmed on Monday, this is gonna be a very difficult winter.
