End of a 24-year era at Eskom
Eskom’s Chief Financial Officer, Calib Cassim, will be retiring during the financial year ending March 2027.
This comes as Eskom reported its annual financial results for the 2026 financial year ended 31 March 2026.
Cassim has been at Eskom for 24 years, including one year where he acted as Group Chief Executive following the rocky departure of former CEO, Andre de Ruyter.
He started at Eskom in 2002 as chief advisor for financial planning and regulation, before being appointed general manager for financial planning and regulation in 2007.
He stayed in the role until 2017, when he became Chief Financial Officer.
Cassim served as acting group chief executive between 2023 and 2024, after which he reverted to the CFO post under the leadership of current CEO, Dan Marokane.
Before his time at Eskom, he worked as a financial manager at Standard Bank’s Credit Card Division.
“The Board has initiated a succession process to ensure a smooth leadership transition and expresses its sincere appreciation for his contribution to Eskom,” said the utility.
“The Board is managing the recruitment process for the incoming GCFO with a clear schedule and timelines, with the aim of having the successful candidate take office before the end of the 2026 calendar year.”
In its latest annual results, the utility recorded a profit of about R30.35 billion for the 2026 financial year, more than doubling its R14 billion profit from the previous year.
This increase in revenue and profits occurred despite a decline in sales, suggesting that fewer customers paid higher rates, resulting in a mismatch between sales and revenue.
Eskom highlighted that a 12.74% tariff increase was partially counteracted by a 6.2% decline in sales over the year.
Recognising this discrepancy, Eskom stated that this situation is unsustainable and emphasised that future revenue growth will require both retaining demand and diversifying its revenue streams.
“Tariff increases alone cannot secure Eskom’s future,” it said.
The group stated that its improved generation availability has created a new opportunity. For the first time in over a decade, this enhanced capacity has resulted in an estimated surplus of 2-3 GW.
This positions the group to attract new demand rather than ration supply.
No load shedding for over a year
Eskom also pointed out that its increase in profitability was somewhat skewed by substantial fuel levy refunds in FY2025, which totalled R14.2 billion.
However, it highlighted that its underlying costs decreased by R11.5 billion when excluding the fuel levy effect.
This reduction was made possible by more reliable, cheaper generation, thereby displacing Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs).
As the sole generator and distributor for South Africa’s national grid, the state-owned company has faced various challenges in recent years.
The group has historically struggled to meet the country’s energy demands adequately, leading to load shedding.
South Africa has not experienced load shedding for over a year, which Eskom has attributed to improved generation capacity.
In its latest financial results, the energy supplier saw its revenue rise to R355 billion—roughly R14 billion higher than in 2025—and its EBITDA to R108.6 billion.
The improvements in both revenue and profit have resulted from enhanced efficiency within the company, leading to an increase in its Electricity Availability Factor (EAF).
The EAF is a crucial metric that measures Eskom’s efficiency in generating electricity; a higher score indicates fewer breakdowns and less unplanned maintenance.
For 2026, Eskom reported an EAF of 65.16%, which is approximately five percentage points higher than the previous year. However, this figure still fell short of Eskom’s target for the year.
Loading ...