I have just finished reading André de Ruyter’s book Truth to Power My Three Years Inside Eskom, which I believe should be read by South Africans interested in why the country is the way it is today. Unlike de Ruyter, I spent my whole professional life in the public sector, while he entered Eskom as the CEO having only worked in the private sector. He acknowledges that he completely underestimated the constraints imposed on him as the Eskom CEO by the public service regulations and processes as well as political oversight. As with de Ruyter when I moved from a clinical role in health services into management in 1994, I experienced similar frustrations with the slow pace of administrative processes in the public service and the consequences of political oversight.
Notwithstanding our differences in age, experience and professions, what is described in his book resonates strongly with me and mirrors in many respects what I outlined in my book describing my 40 year career in the South African Public Health Service1. Politically, I like many of the significant role-players chronicled in his book, differ from de Ruyter, in that politically I came from an ANC background, which to some extent was the reason that I progressed as rapidly as I did in senior health management after 1994. Nevertheless, no longer a supporter of the ANC as it is today, I find myself in agreement with him on the challenges posed to the country by cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats slavishly bound to, what in today’s world in my view and his, are narrow archaic political ideologies.
Those who are regular readers of this blog will recognise my management style in de Ruyter’s penchant for walking the shop floors of power stations and his frustration with unkempt and shoddy areas as signs that management rarely venture out of their offices. I was amused at his observation that when he encountered a wet floor on an inspection, he knew that the area had only just been cleaned for his benefit. I had similar experiences when I first undertook planned hospital visits, which lead me in later years to undertake surprise visits to health facilities resulting in a more realistic assessment of the state of facilities.
Fortunately during the time I headed two provincial health departments they were not in the state of disarray that is described at Eskom by André de Ruyter. However, in work that I have done subsequent to my retirement in several provinces, including one provincial health department that I initially headed from 1995 to 2001, hospitals mirrored in some measure what is described in his book. Inopportune appointments of individuals lacking the qualifications and experience to undertake the tasks for which they were appointed is one reason but in addition a lack of commitment to the task is another. Fraud and corruption, again not of the scale seen at Eskom but still significant, bedevils many health departments and their facilities for reasons similar to those outlined in de Ruyter’s book.
What does resonate very strongly is the phenomenon of what de Ruyter describes very aptly as a “tenderpreneur tax.” He is particularly frank about his view that the Marxist leanings of the ruling party and what he terms the “anti-business sentiment” of government. The role of “middlemen” who add no value other than to add cost to items procured in fulfilment of government policies related to black empowerment and local content resulted in multiples of increases in prices compared the same items if procured directly from the source company. I had made a similar argument, when an accounting officer heading a health department, that if it was government policy to fund empowerment in this manner then the resulting price premium should have been for the account of the Department of Trade and Industry and not that of the Health Department. While at the time I received sympathy from some Treasury officials, all were bound by the prescripts of legislation and treasury regulations, as is Eskom today.
My interaction with some politicians and other politically connected individuals, but not all, again mirror the experience of André de Ruyter. In particular, the experience that people with little or no expertise in an area, once appointed into a position of authority, be it minister, MEC or board member, miraculously acquire knowledge and opinions about a topic of which they know very little if anything. It was refreshing on occasion to work with a politician who respectfully sought corporate knowledge from managers and subject specialists before expressing views in the public domain.
As I have written on a number of occasions mutual respect and trust must exist for the relationship between politician and bureaucrat to be productive. As with de Ruyter, I found the bypassing of senior management by politicians directly to lower echelons in the department without justification as counterproductive if not disrespectful to those in senior management. If there is a breakdown in trust between senior management, and especially the head of department, it must either be resolved between the two concerned or the position of the head of department taken on review or as it is stated in the public service, the contract requires to be “redetermined” i.e. terms of severance agreed.
What I find distressing is the response of government, and in particular the ANC, to the publication of André de Ruyter’s book. I can understand that the description of the President as “more of a genial country club manager than a decisive leader” would be uncomfortable and unwelcome to any political party. Similarly, while his categorisation of Ministers Mantashe and Patel are not flattering, they do deserve analysis as his opinions seem to me to hold water. I understand that some may find de Ruyter’s forthright and direct writing style uncomfortable but as he himself says that is the price of talking “truth to power” … it does not always win friends but it is necessary at times.
Rather than acknowledged as an important record of what has gone wrong at a crucial parastatal entity and a guide as to what could be the possible solutions for the challenges faced at Eskom, there has instead been a concerted attack on his character. He was accused at a recent SCOPA hearing of having a “messiah complex” by the Cabinet Minister who represents government as the sole Eskom shareholder. More directly he has been threatened by the ANC with court action for “spreading falsehoods” about the organisation and its members. It certainly seems to be that case that those in power wish to shoot the messenger and are not prepared to heed the message.
André de Ruyter did South Africa a service by taking on the challenge of Eskom for 3 years, albeit as he admits having failed in certain aspects in what he set out to do. He should be applauded for having the courage to write and publish this book. I agree with a commentator who in a recent column suggested that Truth to Power should become a case study and prescribed reading for students of management, particularly in the public service, in this country.
My appeal to everyone interested in the welfare of South Africa … “Read the book and decide for yourself.”
