The minister in charge of Eskom undermined upper management, disrupting efforts to end the nation’s energy crisis, said former CEO André de Ruyter.

Pravin Gordhan, the minister if public enterprises, would verify information, communicated by the CEO, with lower-level Eskom employees, De Ruyter said in his new book, Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom.

South Africa has been hobbled by frequent power cuts that are crimping economic growth.

“Whenever I heard of him double-checking my statements with Eskom employees, it left a bad taste in my mouth,” De Ruyter wrote in an excerpt published on Sunday. “If you don’t trust me, fine, but tell me and then fire me.”

De Ruyter said in a television interview in February that Eskom was losing about R1-billion/month due to corruption and theft, with the help of people linked to the ANC. A day later, Eskom announced that De Ruyter would leave the company with immediate effect.

A spokesman for Gordhan declined to comment, adding that the minister will appear in parliament in the coming week.

‘Meddlesome streak’

A new board appointed on 30 September “showed its meddlesome streak” early on, also undermining Eskom’s top executives, De Ruyter wrote. “Board members often called employees at middle management level, several tiers below the board, to find out how things were going.”