By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Cabinet has extended the tenure of state-owned power utility Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati for another three years, keeping him in the position until 2029.
Minister of Energy and Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa confirmed that Nyati would continue serving as board chair after his term was set to expire at the end of October 2026.
Nyati’s three year term starts with effect from 1 November 2026.
Nyati, who was first appointed to the Eskom board in October 2022, has been seen as a stable hand at Eskom, helping contribute to the end of load shedding.
Together with his board colleagues and Eskom management, not only have they managed to fade the energy crisis, but the power utility is now profitable and its power stations are performing better.
Ramokgopa praised Nyati’s efforts in stabilising Eskom.
The improvement in the utility’s performance reflects the work of its board, management and employees. His continued service will help carry that work into Eskom’s next phase, where the measure of success will be sustained energy security, a financially sound utility and better service to South Africans,” Ramokgopa said.
His reappointment follows a period of uncertainty over whether the Eskom board was fully in support of the creation of an independent State-owned Transmission System Operator (TSO), with ownership and control of the transmission assets.
This reform had been strongly endorsed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who set up a task team in February to oversee the creation of a TSO with the transmission assets, in direct contradiction to an earlier Eskom plan for the assets to remain in the hands of a subsidiary.
A process was now under way to appoint a transaction adviser to support government implement the unbundling of NTCSA, with a request for proposals having been released to secure such an adviser.
Nyati and Ramaphosa also recently held direct discussions on the issue, after which Nyati described government’s decision to establish a fully independent TSO with ownership and control of the transmission assets as “the right policy”.
Besides the focus on electricity affordability, Nyati said the Eskom board would also be prioritising growing Eskom’s role in renewable energy, while expanding its role in the Southern Africa region and facilitating data-centre and minerals beneficiation investments.
Eskom board would be holding a three-day strategy session in October, during which it would seek to finalise its approach to the Eskom 2.0 strategy objectives that had been set for it by its shareholder.
Ramokgopa said that elements of Eskom 2.0 were already in place, including the launch of Eskom Green as the group’s vehicle for rolling out renewable energy.
“The board is expected to develop a single roadmap for Eskom over the next three, five and ten years.”
“It must define the utility’s public obligations, its future generation mix, its commercial position and the investments required to sustain them,” Ramokgopa said, indicating that he saw the group playing a central role in both gas-to-power and nuclear.