By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom has suffered another blow with one of its most outspoken board members, Business Leadership South Africa chief executive Busi Mavuso, resigning from the board.
Mavuso had been a board member since November 2017, and was the sole chartered accountant present. She is also an outspoken critic of the ANC, who she said is to blame for the power crisis facing the country.
With Mavuso’s exit, the Eskom board is now down to just five members, when it has the capacity – and urgent need – for 13. Seven members resigned from 2018 onwards and have not been replaced.
Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan announced this week that his department would be ‘reconfiguring and reconstituting’ the board, but gave no timelines for the process or any details of what it entails. This means the board will be sitting with five members for an indeterminate amount of time.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Public Enterprises said that the board had been informed that a review had been finalised and that “the board will soon be reconstituted and restructured.”
Gordhan “thanked the current board for their service during the most challenging period of the entity, “giving the impression that the current members would not be kept on after the changes.
The Eskom board has been sitting at only half its full capacity for several years, lacking the necessary engineering and accounting skills required.
Public and political backlash has been harsh, with many pinning the blame on the board. Unions, in particular, have called for the whole management structure of Eskom to be fired.
Eskom meanwhile says that load shedding will remain at stage 4 until further notice as it struggles to preserve diesel for its Open Cycle Gas Turbines.
The group said it is also struggling with technical issues at one of its power stations, resulting in three units being shut down, with four more units coming offline shortly.
“Load shedding will, unfortunately, remain implemented at Stage 4 throughout the night and continue until diesel stocks have been fully replenished,” it said.
The vessel that is supposed to offload diesel at Mossel Bay cannot berth due to rough seas. Eskom has to therefore preserve the low diesel levels at Gourikwa, while delivery to Ankerlig will take time to replenish as it is done by road tankers.”
Load shedding was initially supposed to move to stage 3 between 00h00 and 16h00 through to Saturday, only moving to stage 4 from 16h00 to midnight.
Stage 4 will now be maintained until Eskom can resume diesel supplies to the two Open Cycle Gas Turbine stations.