MINISTRY

PUBLIC ENTERPRISES
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

Private Bag X15, Hatfield, 0028, 80 Hamilton Street, Arcadia, Pretoria

Tel: 012 431 1118/1150 Private Bag X9079, Cape Town, 8000
 
Appointment of the Eskom Group Chief Executive

18 November 2019

Pursuant to the departure of the former GCE Mr Phakamani Hadebe at the end of July, 2019, the Board
set out to commence the recruitment process to find a replacement.
In line with Eskom policies, the recruitment process took two forms, a head hunting process and a public
advert placement for external and internal participation.

The following process was followed:

1. The search agency received a list of 142 potential candidates, including eight
Eskom employees.
2. first shortlist of 17 individuals was formulated and interviewed by the agency.
From that 17, eight potential candidates withdrew as they did not wish to make themselves available.
3. The Board interviewed 6 candidates
4. Four candidates were requested to undergo competency tests

5. The final interview process was undertaken, after which the panel ranked three
candidates from six.
6. After further interviews a list of three candidates, with the indication of a preferred
candidate was submitted to the shareholder in terms of the Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) between
Eskom and the government.
6. The president appointed a team of cabinet ministers to consider the Boards
recommendations
7. The Ministers concurred with the Board’s recommendation.

Accordingly, I am pleased to announce Mr Andre de Ruyter as the new Group CE. he will commence
duties at eskom on 15 january, 2020.
He is currently CEO at Nampak, the continent's largest packaging company.
A holder of various qualifications, including an LLB and MBA, the Pretoria-born Mr De Ruyter is an
accomplished CEO with deep and wide experiences in creating and managing highly-performing
businesses.

He spent more than 20 years with petrochemicals group Sasol in a number of senior management roles
that gave him significant global exposure in the energy and chemicals industries. His portfolio included
overseeing work in the US, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Germany and China.
I would like to thank Mr de Ruyter for not only accepting this position at a difficult time for eskom, but,
given Eskom current financial situation, also agreeing to a lower compensation package than the position
currently pays.
He will work with the Eskom board, management and the government to spearhead the re-organisation of
Eskom, which includes the separation of Eskom into three entities: generation, transmission and
distribution, as well as the creation of Eskom Holdings.
As things stand I am reassured that there is committed and capable leadership at Eskom in the Chief
Financial Officer (Calib Cassim), the Chief Operating Officer (Jan Oberholder), the Group Executives for
Generation, Transmission and Distribution (Bheki Nxumalo, Segomocco Scheppers and Monde Bala), the
Group Executive for Human Capital (Ms Elsie Pule) amongst others, who have all been working tirelessly
under the leadership of Mr Mabuza over the past few months. I am confident that he will lead a committed
and capable management team that will work with him and the Board to take Eskom forward. I would like
to thank the whole leadership team, including the board and management, for holding fort in these difficult
and challenging times.
I am grateful to the Board of Nampak for agreeing to release Mr Ruyter. To us this again is a show of
partnership approach between all stakeholders to make any and every contribution towards a successful
and sustainable turnaround of Eskom. Solving our current problems as a nation indeed does require a
partnership approach and I am more than encouraged that we are all working as partners with everyone
doing their part to help.
Congratulations to Mr De Ruyter, and I offer him my best wishes as he takes the helm of this important
national asset.
The government is working to bring back the engineering skills and experience of competent and ethical
professionals, that have been lost to Eskom over the years due to state capture and other incidents of
malfeasance. We remain committed to strengthening the Board with the necessary skills set - this is being
prioritized and further announcements will be made in this regard in due course.

END