The cabinet has approved a new board for Eskom, of which Mpho Makwana will be chair. The new board combines a mix of legal, engineering and financial skills.
Makwana is independent nonexecutive chair of ArcelorMittal SA and chair of Nedbank. He also holds a number of other corporate positions. He was previously on the Eskom board prior to 2011 and served for nine months as Eskom CEO.
The announcement was made by public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan at a media briefing on Friday, following a cabinet meeting earlier in the day. The new board will assume its role for a three-year term from October 1. Gordhan informed members of the previous board on Tuesday of the pending announcement.
The new board includes Busisiwe Vilakazi (an engineer); Lwazi Goqwana (a member of the ministerial task team looking into improvements at Eskom); Clive Le Roux (a retiree with experience at Koeberg as Eskom’s chief nuclear officer); Leslie Mkhabela (attorney with experience in the restructuring of state-owned assets); Mteto Nyati (chemical engineer and former Altron CEO); Fathima Gany (chartered accountant); Ayanda Mafuleka (chartered accountant); Tsakani Mthombeni (an engineer who has been involved in improving performance at Eskom, and former chair of the Energy Intensive Users Group); Claudelle von Eck (a change management expert); Tryphosa Ramano (a chartered accountant); and trade unionist Bheki Ntshalintshali. Existing board member Rod Crompton will be retained to ensure continuity.
The new board will face a mammoth task of addressing load-shedding and improving the availability of energy. It will also have to assess Eskom’s executive management team led by CEO André de Ruyter to ensure that it is attuned to objectives set out in the shareholder compact that Eskom has with the government (as shareholder) and with its strategy.
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