Johannesburg/London | The chief executive of South Africa’s troubled Eskom state power monopoly told police that he survived an attempt to kill him with cyanide-laced coffee, according to a government minister.
Andre de Ruyter was allegedly targeted a day after he submitted his resignation from the blackout-prone utility last month, just before his exit was made public. He blamed lack of support from within President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government in a battle to stem the worst ever blackouts in Africa’s most industrial nation and to tackle rampant graft within the company.
