Last week, it was widely reported that the CEO of South Africa’s State-Owned Power Company Eskom, Andre De Ruyter, was allegedly poisoned just a few days after officially tendering his resignation.

Although Andre De Ruyter only revealed the information a few days ago, it is believed that the assassination attempt was carried out at his office in Johannesburg on 13 December. The news sent shock waves across the country and continent at large, especially in relation to the manner in which the murder attempt was executed.

The big question on the lips of everyone who came across the news is, why was Andre De Ruyter poisoned?

According to reports that medical experts confirmed, someone had put cyanide in Andre’s coffee a day after he tendered his resignation, with the aim to murder him. But the big question remains why anyone would want the Eskom CEO dead at all costs?

Observers and critics alike have opined that the assassination attempts are linked to the role the company has played in the worsening electricity issues in South Africa in recent times. Within the past few months, the country has experienced what citizens say are the worst blackouts in the history of South Africa.

For the first time, citizens of South Africa have had to endure the horrid experience of a load-sharing formula that saw some regions going without electricity for as many as two days.

The nationwide blackout crisis was linked to the inability of Andre De Ruyter to put an end to the high level of corruption and widespread graft going on in Eskom, especially at the senior management level.

The news of the attempted assassination was revealed by Andre De Ruyter himself over the weekend during an interview session anchored by renowned energy analyst and the editor of EE Business Intelligence, Chris Yelland. Mr. Andre recalled that he became weak, dizzy, and confused, and began to vomit after taking his coffee in the office that morning.

He was then rushed to the hospital, where tests were carried out, and it was confirmed that there was the presence of cyanide in his blood streams from the coffee he took at the office that morning, confirming that there was an assassination attempt on his life.

Reacting to the news, the South African minister of public enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, assured the general public that the alleged assassination attempt on de Ruyter’s life would be carefully but thoroughly investigated. He also assured the public that his ministry and the various security agencies would ensure that those responsible would be prosecuted.

However, according to Morne Malan, who is the head of communications at Solidarity, a union at Eskom made up of over 6,000 workers in the company, the assassination attempt was orchestrated by people at the upper management of the company.

Mr. Malan said there is cause to believe that the alleged poisoning was executed by someone or a group of people at the top who were not happy with de Ruyter’s fight against corruption. He claimed that in recent times, their jobs and reputations have been at risk as Mr. Andre was bent on leaving no stone unturned in his determination to get rid of the bad eggs in Eskom responsible for the power crisis in South Africa.

“All the indications at the moment are that he was in fact poisoned based on the toxicology report,” Malan said. “From our understanding, normal cyanide levels for a human being would be around 15 milligrams per liter of blood whereas Andre de Ruyter was at over 40 milligrams per liter.”

You will recall that de Ruyter tendered his resignation shortly after the South African minister of Minerals and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, openly criticized the management of Eskom, saying, “Eskom by not attending to load-shedding is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state.”

Andre de Ruyter emerged as the CEO of Eskom in January 2020, and as a result of his resignation, he will be leaving office on 31 March 2023.

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