South African utility stated that the police are examining the alleged intoxication of its CEO

January 10, 2023: -On Sunday, South African power utility Eskom stated that police whether an attempt was created to poison its outgoing Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter.

On Sunday, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said that the alleged situation “will be thoroughly investigated” and anyone responsible charged.

Without providing details, Gordhan said an intense battle was occurring “between those who are willing to South Africa to work and those who want to enrich themselves corruptly”.

Encountering political pressure, De Ruyter resigned on December 14 after decreasing to solve a crisis in Eskom that led to record power cuts in Africa’s most industrialized economy.

Following the official taking office in January 2020, De Ruyter led a firm-wide clampdown on corruption and created criminal behaviour, which included sabotage of infrastructure at Eskom plants. His previous day in office will be March 31.

“Eskom cannot state further on the poisoning incident involving the group chief executive, occurring during December 2022, as the matter is subject to a police investigation,” the utility’s head of security stated in a statement.

The alleged cyanide poisoning was reported by specialist energy publication EE Business Intelligence on Saturday.

The opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, called for decisive action against criminal syndicates that it stated were “hell-bent which cements their stranglehold on Eskom that is leaving the economy.”