Eskom hits a wall finding De Ruyter’s replacement
Eskom’s search for a new CEO has been dealt a blow after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan rejected the board’s recommendation for Andre de Ruyter’s replacement, News24 reports.
The embattled power utility has been without a permanent CEO after De Ruyter left the position earlier than expected in February 2023 following an explosive interview with eNCA’s Annika Larsen, where he accused unnamed senior ANC politicians of corruption.
Eskom CFO Calib Cassim took over as interim CEO, but he will likely steer the ship for longer than expected.
Gordhan reportedly rejected the board’s sole recommendation for a new CEO on the grounds that three candidates had to be shortlisted – whereas the board only submitted one name.
This was confirmed to News24 by Gordhan’s spokesperson, Ellis Mnyandu, who said the shortlisting requirement was part of Eskom’s Memorandum of Incorporation.
Eskom chair Mpho Makwana recently told journalists that the group had submitted a name to the department, and that the process of appointing a new CEO for the group was sitting with the government for approval.
The timelines surrounding the process were out of Eskom’s hands, he said.
“Your guess is as good as ours as to when we will be able to announce, given the need for this enhanced due diligence,” he said.
Makwana said that the end result would be a simple “yes or no” for the name put forward by the board – as it turns out, the answer appears to be “no”.
The chair said that the process had taken this long because extra care was being taken to do due diligence given the significance of the role, the politics surrounding the matter, as well as the “painful lessons” from the past in dealing with the previous group executive – alluding to De Ruyter’s allegations and stormy exit.
It is unclear who exactly the board recommended, with four frontrunners for the job:
- CEF board chair and Eskom’s former head of distribution Ayanda Noah;
- Former Eskom CFO Paul O’Flaherty;
- Chair of the management committee of the NRS and former City Power CEO Valli Padayachee;
- Eskom head of group capital Dan Marokane.
Eskom’s board is reportedly expected to meet this week to discuss the turn of events.
Poisoned chalice
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.
Jacob Maroga was the first Eskom CEO to see load shedding and left the group in 2009.
Brian Dames was the outlier and oversaw five years of no load shedding from 2009 and 2013, with rolling power cuts only kicking in again in 2014.
Collina Majila and Tshediso Matona were at the helm in 2014 and 2015, with controversial figures Brian Molefe and Matshela Koko then taking over in 2016.
The utility then saw Johnny Dladla and Sean Maritz take the helm in 2017 before Phakamani Hadebe and Jabu Mabuza took over in 2018 and 2019.
De Ruyter was appointed in 2020 and was at the helm when the country started to reach its highest levels of load shedding.
Cassim looks set to extend his stay as the group’s interim CEO, with it set to unbundle into three separate companies – generation, distribution and transmission.
Read: Another major problem for rooftop solar in South Africa
Loading ...