KEITH GOTTSCHALK
ONE repeated theme of the memoir Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom, by Andre de Ruyter, former CEO of South Africa’s troubled power utility, Eskom, is that “negligence and carelessness had become cemented into the organisation”.
Dirt piled up at even the newest power stations until it damaged equipment, which stopped working – and some equipment disappeared beneath a layer of ash.
Integrity had been displaced by greed and crime: Corruption had metastasised to permeate much of the organisation.
Corruption had metastasised to permeate much of the organisation.
As a political scientist who has, among other topics, followed corruption and kleptocracy, this book ranks among the more informative. De Ruyter (or his ghost writer) delivers a pacey, racy adventure thriller.
Chapter after chapter reads like a horror story about Eskom, whose failure to generate enough electricity consistently for the past 15 years has hobbled the economy.
The book is also a sobering indication
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