De Ruyter took up the reins at Eskom in January 2020.
The publication says Eskom board chairperson Mpho Makwana is expected to step into the chief executive role.
The utility, whose aging fleet of coal-fired power stations is prone to faults, has struggled to meet electricity demand in Africa's most industrialised nation for more than a decade.
It ramped up load shedding a week ago to Stage 6, repeating the worst outage level on record and putting further strain on households and businesses. Stage 6 power cuts require up to 6,000 megawatts to be shed from the national grid and mean at least six hours a day without power for most South Africans.
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