De Ruyter named fellow at Yale’s Jackson School

Andre de Ruyter, former chief executive officer of struggling state power utility Eskom, has been named as a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs.

The appointment that runs into 2024 comes six months after De Ruyter left Eskom. His departure was hastened following an interview in which he alleged officials of the ruling African National Congress were linked to widespread corruption at the company. He exited the country weeks later, following a growing backlash from politicians.

De Ruyter has secondary appointments at the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of the Environment, according to the Jackson School website. “Senior fellows are leading practitioners in various fields of international affairs, who spend a year or semester at Yale teaching courses and mentoring students,” it said.

Read: Ex-CEO heads to Yale; power availability improves

In his book titled Truth to Power, the former CEO recounted how his morning coffee was laced with cyanide at Eskom headquarters and how he had to travel with security because of threats to his life. Frequent breakdowns at mainly coal-fired plants continue to cause almost daily blackouts across South Africa.

De Ruyter is “committed to enabling the responsible yet accelerated decarbonisation of the energy and other industries, and played a key role in conceptualising and negotiating” South Africa’s $8.5 billion facility from rich nations to transition away from the use of coal, according to his profile on the Jackson School’s website.

Read: Welcome to Eskom, ‘SA’s largest organised crime network’

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who has political oversight of Eskom, was often the highest-ranking government official to defend De Ruyter. After the ANC corruption allegations were made, Gordhan said the executive failed to focus on the utility’s generation assets and “swanned around the world looking at renewables.”

Eskom is still awaiting the permanent appointment of a CEO to replace De Ruyter.