JOHANNESBURG—One Monday last month, the chief executive officer of South Africa’s state-owned power company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.,
André de Ruyter,
woke up for his 5 a.m. gym routine, then headed to an off-site meeting with the chairman of the board. Hours later, he lay shaking in a clinic bed. Blood tests viewed by The Wall Street Journal showed that he had ingested cyanide.
Now, the South African government is looking for a successor to Mr. de Ruyter, who says he handed his resignation to the Eskom board chairman hours before he started feeling nauseous and confused in his office on Dec. 12. Mr. de Ruyter says he suspects the cyanide was added to a cappuccino he drank from his personalized mug at his office.
Even without the suspected poisoning, which is being investigated by local police, taking the helm of the company that supplies some 90% of South Africa’s electricity comes with a daunting job description.
Eskom’s fleet of aging power stations is constantly breaking down due to old age, poor maintenance and alleged sabotage, triggering nationwide rolling blackouts currently lasting more than 11 hours a day and further hobbling South Africa’s already hamstrung economy.
Days after Mr. de Ruyter’s resignation, the company’s auditors warned that Eskom was at risk of bankruptcy, buckling under a mountain of debt and local regulations that keep electricity tariffs below Eskom’s generation costs.
On top of that, international pressure to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions means Eskom needs to rapidly replace coal, on which it relies for around 90% of its power generation, with renewable energy sources.
South Africa’s president,
Cyril Ramaphosa,
said last week that whoever becomes Eskom’s 12th CEO since 2010 will face a long list of challenges. “I applaud anyone who takes that job,” he added.
Departing CEO André de Ruyter says his efforts to overhaul Eskom were undermined by entrenched corruption.
Photo:
Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg News
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