Page 31 - FWG Issue 5 June 2023

Book Reviews

Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom
By André de Ruyter
When André de Ruyter took over as Eskom CEO in January 2020, he quickly realised why it was
considered the toughest job in South Africa. Aside from neglected equipment, ageing power
stations and an eroded skills base, he discovered that Eskom was crippled by corruption on a
staggering scale.
Fake fuel oil deliveries at just one power station cost Eskom R100 million per month; kneepads
retailing for R150 a pair were purchased for R80 000; billions of rands of equipment supposedly
housed in the company’s storerooms was missing.
Faced with police inaction, he was compelled to plunge into a world that was foreign to him – a
world of spies and safe houses, of bulletproof vests and bodyguards.
In Truth to Power, De Ruyter tells the behind-the-scenes story of how he launched a private
investigation that exposed at least four criminal cartels feeding off Eskom. While fighting this
scourge, he had to deal with political interference, absurd regulations, non-paying municipalities,
unfounded accusations of racism, wildcat strikes, sabotage and a poisoning attempt.
De Ruyter takes the reader inside the boardrooms and government meetings where South
Africa’s future is shaped, with ministers often pulling in conflicting directions. He explains how
renewable energy is the cheapest and quickest solution to our power crisis, in spite of fierce
opposition from vested coal interests.

De Ruyter candidly reflects on his three years at the power utility, his successes and failures, his
reasons for leaving and his hopes for the future.
As someone who worked at the highest levels of the state but who is not beholden to the ruling
party, he is uniquely placed to speak truth to power.

Price: R350.00

I Am Ella: A The Making of
remarkable story Another Major
of survival, from Motion Picture
Auschwitz to Africa Masterpiece
By Joanne Jowell From Academy Award-winning
actor and bestselling author Tom
Ella Blumenthal’s story of Hanks
surviving the Holocaust
and building a new life in A wildly ambitious story of
South Africa could easily be the making of a colossal, star-
mistaken for fiction. From studded, multimillion-dollar
the ashes of the Warsaw superhero action film, and
Ghetto uprising to the fires of the humble comic book that
Majdanek, Bergen-Belsen and inspired it all.
Auschwitz; from the abandon
of post-war Poland to the Spanning 80 years of a
refuge of Paris, Palestine and changing America and
getting married and moving culminating in the opening of
to Johannesburg and eventually Cape Town; from stateless refugee the film, we meet a colourful cast of characters, including a troubled
to displaced immigrant, Ella’s 101 years of life have been nothing soldier returning from war, a young boy with an artistic gift, an
short of herculean. inspired and eccentric director, a pompous film star on the rise, a
tireless production assistant and countless film crew members that
Together with her niece Roma Rothstein, five years her junior, Ella together create Hollywood magic.
survived three concentration camps before being liberated by the
British Army in 1945. They made their way across Europe to join Funny, touching and wonderfully thought-provoking, The Making
their last surviving family member in Palestine, where Ella met the of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece offers an insider’s take
South African man she would marry after just 13 days. She followed on the momentous efforts it takes to make a film. The author reflects
Isaac Blumenthal to the tip of Africa. They settled in Brakpan, on America’s past and present, on the world of show business and
outside Johannesburg, where Ella and her husband built a business on the real world we all live in.
and raised their four children.
Price: R390.00
Price: R330.00

Fourways Gardens • 29 • June 2023