text: Six months after Hadebe's departure, former Nampak Chief Executive André de Ruyter was appointed CEO of Eskom.  De Ruyter's appointment was criticised by the EFF and factions within the ANC who instead wanted a black CEO appointed to the position. De Ruyter resigned in December 2022 after repeated attacks on him by Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy partly due to de Ruyter's advocacy for replacing coal with renewables as an energy source. News24 reported that he was not given the support needed to succeed in the position. Shortly after the announcement that de Ruyter would be leaving Eskom it was reported that he survived a poisoning attempt after he unknowingly drank a cup of coffee at his office that was laced with cyanide.
  Financials
  In 2018 and 2019 Eskom's negative financial situation became serious as costs started exceeding income and the company started experiencing trouble raising money.  For 72 hours between 26 March and 29 March 2019 it was reported that Eskom had run out of funds thereby threatening to negatively impact the broader South African economy. The situation was alleviated once Eskom secured a R3 billion commercial loan which was paid back on 2 April after the Reserve Bank disbursed R5 billion to Eskom through an emergency provision. In July 2019 Eskom announced a loss of R20.7 billion due to the cost of servicing high levels of debt, the increased cost of primary energy and unpaid municipal debts.