By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd’s search for the new chief executive officer has raised tensions between the Department of Public Enterprises that oversees the state utility and its board.
Andre de Ruyter announced his resignation as CEO nine months ago, yet a permanent replacement hasn’t been named despite an ongoing energy crisis that is taking an ever-increasing toll on the economy.
A candidate was put forward by the board but rejected by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Gordhan issued a statement claiming that the rejection was based on the board only sending him one name when it is required by law to send three.
The City Press reports that a statement from Eskom first indicated that the board had sent three names to Gordhan, but later the utility “corrected” this to match the minister’s statement.
Citing various insiders – both at Eskom and within the political sphere – the paper said that it is apparent that political interference is at play, and the rejection was based on preferred candidates not being selected.
According to the paper, the board had favoured former Eskom manager Dan Marokane, who also has support of the Eskom unions, while the politicians preferred Central Energy Fund board chair Ayanda Noah.
Gordhan has rejected the narrative about political interference, calling it “distortions and lies being peddled over the process” to subvert his responsibility to ensure it was transparent and lawful.
The minister instead blamed an unnamed ‘third force’ for trying to upset the process.
“The politicisation of this process shows that our efforts to clean up our state-owned companies will always be met with resistance and political opportunism. We will not be deterred from exercising our oversight responsibility by people looking to deceive the South African public,” Gordhan said.
It has been speculated that the entire process might start over, leaving the power utility in a precarious position.
There are three core measurements from the data which Eskom provides to assess its performance – the system outlook, load-shedding, and the energy availability factor.
These factors all declined since De Ruyter left the power utility and Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was appointed.
It should be noted that Ramokgopa inherited a poorly functioning Eskom, which will take a long time to fix.
The decline in these factors started in 2019 and continued during De Ruyter’s tenure as Eskom’s chief executive.
Eskom CFO Calib Cassim took over as interim CEO, but his contract is expected to end in December.
Eskom is renowned for having a revolving door of CEOs, with 12 different permanent and interim CEOs leading the utility since load shedding commenced in 2007.