De Ruyter says Eskom has replaced managers not adhering to SOPs

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says the power utility has acquired the services of the best experts within Eskom to help with operations excellence.  Interviewed on the new SABC news programme, The Watchdog last night, De Ruyter says some managers have been replaced for failing to adhere to standard operating procedures at Eskom.

He says inefficiencies combined with aging infrastructure and poor maintenance in the past have contributed to the continuing power outages in the country.

“We have also I think managed to focus quite a lot on operations excellence. We have acquired the services of the best experts you can find inside Eskom. They are now being deployed to the power stations where they can apply their expertise to particular fills, and they can assist power station managers to ensure that each and every one of the elements is being attended to.”

Dealing with constant power outages

De Ruyter says aging infrastructure and lack of maintenance in the past remain some of the power utility’s biggest challenges to keep the lights on in the country.

He says this will continue to negatively affect communities unless efforts are made to redress the situation.

De Ruyter says there are measures in place to deal with the constant power outages.

“We are also focusing on maintenance. We have implemented maintenance programmes with far greater rigger than we have previously done. We are sticking to our maintenance schedule very rigorously. I think in the past that was part of the reason why our kit is in such a poor state. We did not adhere to those maintenance schedules and of course when you postpone a service on your car, it keeps running for a while, eventually, lack of maintenance will catch up with you.”

The Watchdog speaks to De Ruyter: