CNBC Africa<\/a> as unhelpful and dysfunctional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are several issues that plague Eskom, including a debt of over R400 billion, criminal activities within the company, unreliability of its operations, and constant leadership changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problems with Eskom’s culture and employee morale were of particular concern to Nyati, as these issues have led to the utility’s erratic performance and the increase in criminal activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chairperson commented on Eskom’s staff problems following a report by the German consultancy group VGBE Energy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report found Eskom’s staff to be frustrated and unmotivated, and they were working in a blame-shifting environment characterised by indifference and ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report also highlighted that Eskom does not have a system in place to reward good performance, which leads to a lack of motivation among the staff to work harder and achieve better results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The experts who conducted the report urged Eskom to modify its corporate culture and advised it to introduce a reward program to promote good performance at an individual level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For instance, power plants could be given a bonus if they can decrease their losses by a certain percentage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another incentive could be to offer free accommodation for Eskom employees in close proximity to the power plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Nyati, Eskom’s board has devised a plan to address the problems and will put into effect some of the recommendations suggested by the VGBE team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stated that during the investigation, they identified instances where leaders were not leading and managers were not managing, indicating that the people in those positions were unsuitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nyati emphasised the importance of placing individuals who are knowledgeable about Eskom and coal-fired power stations in key positions in order to lead the organisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal is to find individuals who have experience in this field, as this will help improve overall employee morale, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To encourage the right behaviour, the embattled power utility plans to implement incentive structures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nyati mentioned that the team will work together to create a culture of accountability and discipline, although it is unclear whether this will include bonuses, which Eskom has not paid out since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, these recommendations fail to acknowledge that, despite any current proposals or plans, Eskom staff had already secured a 7% wage increase in June 2023 through negotiations with their employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This salary increase was pushed through even though Eskom has reported a massive loss of R23.9 billion for the 2022\/23 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Concerningly, in a presentation to Parliament\u2019s Public Enterprises Committee, Eskom said it is forecasting a loss of R23.2 billion for 2023\/24 \u2013 exacerbated by a huge escalation in load shedding, mounting municipal debt and skyrocketing losses due to criminal activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nRead: Ditching coal will never work for South Africa, says Mantashe<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eskom\u2019s board is looking at taking steps to boost staff morale, which it hopes will improve the performance of its power stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":763971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[3634,1164,853],"class_list":["post-763859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-cnbc-africa","tag-eskom","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763859"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763993,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763859\/revisions\/763993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}