De Ruyter 'poisoning' a result of anti-corruption drive – expert

This after De Ruyter resigned from his post at the utility on December 14 following the failure to solve a crisis in the company that had led to record levels of power cuts in the country.

Energy expert Chris Yelland says this comes as De Ruyter and his executive team were in a process of clamping down criminal activities at Eskom.

"It is well known that De Ruyter and his executive team were clamping down on a whole lot of criminal activities, procurement regularities fraud, corruption and maladministration within Eskom and the very significant illegal illicit revenue streams to these criminals they were in a process of closing these syndicates down, so, one can speculate that this had something to do with it."

Yelland adds that a trusted external source relayed information to him about De Ruyter being poisoned.

"The information that I have received from a trusted source, and I must stress external to Eskom. Mr. André de Ruyter suddenly fell ill. He was dizzy, disorientated,  had  a headache, vomiting, ultimately, he collapsed. The security detail took him to his doctor who diagnosed this with cyanide poisoning.

"It is going to be difficult to even find a CEO and certainly I don't believe that a credible CEO can be found by the end of march which is the day that De Ruyter ends Oberholzer will be leaving office and that points to a high-risk situation developing at Eskom," adds Yelland.

Meanwhile, in a statement Eskom stated that the utility cannot comment further.

“Eskom cannot comment further on the poisoning incident involving the Group Chief Executive, which occurred during December 2022, as the matter is subject to police investigation. A criminal complaint has been laid at the Hermanus Police Station under CAS 82/1/2023,” said Karen Pillay, Eskom’s Head of Security.

The complaint has been transferred to the Midrand Police Station.

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