Central Energy Fund says de Ruyter’s comments are deliberately misleading
The Central Energy Fund (CEF) says the comments by former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter are deliberately misleading the public regarding their collaboration with the embattled power utility.
The CEF released a media statement following de Ruyter’s explosive interview with eNCA on Tuesday.
De Ruyter said in the interview that the ANC is benefitting from corruption at Eskom with a high-level politician fully aware of the criminality.
De Ruyter accused the CEF of trying to persuade Eskom to decommission the Camden, Hendrina and Grootvlei power plants and repurpose them into gas processing plants.
This after a visit by the Russian Minister of Energy to South Africa in January.
The CEF confirmed in its media statement that officials had sent Eskom a request to “intensify collaboration between the two state-owned entities given the just energy transition and the importance of gas”.
However, CEF has denied that it was an instruction but rather a request still “to intensify collaboration”, which they say, “makes the most economic sense”.
“The intention though from Mr de Ruyter is a sinister one, which has nothing to do with addressing the debilitating effects of load shedding on the South African economy through ensuring the optimisation of the capacity that sits within the South African state to address this challenge.”
The CEF has described the utterances by de Ruyter as “wild allegations” while indulging “in the realm of speculation”.
“Mr de Ruyter is deliberately misleading in his response and hides behind the qualification that he makes before he proceeds to choose not to tell the truth regarding CEF’s proposal for collaboration with Eskom on gas to power.”
ALSO READ
