An attempt to poison the outgoing CEO of South African utility ESKOM, Andre de Ruyter, is being investigated by the police.
In a statement, the energy company’s head of security said that ESKOM cannot comment on the poisoning incident that occurred last December and that an investigation is being conducted.
This was confirmed by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, who told the US news agency Reuters that those responsible will be pursued, adding that people who want to enrich themselves through corruption are probably behind this.
Andre de Ruyter officially took office in January 2020 and has been leading a crackdown on organized criminal behavior and corruption across the company.
However, Ruyter resigned on 14 December after his failure to deal with the Eskom crisis, which led to power cuts impacting the South African economy.
The poisoning case was reported on Saturday by energy publication EE Business Intelligence.