Eskom becoming the new site of the squabbling between the various factions of the governing ANC was always going to happen. The only surprise is how quickly it happened.
Despite its parlous financial affairs, Eskom remains a lucrative feeding trough for many in the governing elite, hence the ongoing meddling.
It’s worth reconsidering how things got to this point. A good starting point is the resignation of the chair of the board, Jabu Mabuza, last Friday. This was inevitable: he had outlived his utility, hence he had to go.
Mabuza was brought in in 2018 — a month after Cyril Ramaphosa rose to the ANC presidency with a thin margin — to clean up the so-called state captors at the electricity utility. That was his mandate. Turning Eskom around to end load-shedding was a secondary objective.
A large part of his brief was achieved even before he started, when the bulk of the old Eskom regime walked out of their jobs after the then deputy president, Ramaphosa, asked them to do so. The board began unravelling weeks after Ramaphosa managed to oust his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, from his post as president of the republic.
Two developments unfolded quickly: first, Mark Lamberti, a respected business person, was forced out of his position as a nonexecutive director of Eskom after an adverse court ruling that had nothing to do with Eskom but related to his then employer, Imperial. Then, another director, George Sebulela, was asked to leave after talk for a conflict of interest.
Appearing before the state capture inquiry, Mabuza, formerly a Telkom chair, raised the point that this was the first board he had no say in constituting. But such is the nature of ANC politics.
The problems were compounded by the emergency exit of Phakamani Hadebe as CEO of Eskom a few months into the job. Hadebe, who was brought in as Eskom’s interim CEO after his humiliation at banking group Absa, was made CEO by the Mabuza-led board.
After his departure, a further complication was added to the toxic mix that is Eskom: Mabuza was made executive chair while the search for Hadebe’s replacement got under way. In effect, this sealed his fate: having acted as CEO, he couldn’t really be expected to return to his position without a structured exit plan — the norm in well-run corporates. An example of this is what occurred at MTN when former CEO and chair Phuthuma Nhleko was returned to fix the regulatory mess the mobile group landed itself in under his immediate successor.
Worse, various politically inspired, parallel plans were drafted to rescue Eskom. Two notable ones were: first to break Eskom up into three subsidiaries with separate boards, over and above the holdings company board, for generation, transmission and distribution. No-one spoke about blurred accountability lines that would result from this dog’s breakfast.
Second, finance minister Tito Mboweni announced that he and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan would jointly appoint a chief restructuring officer for Eskom. Less is being said about this role lately after unions opposed it.
It is unclear whether Andre de Ruyter, Eskom’s new CEO, was told how, if at all, his thankless job of turning Eskom around would relate to this chief restructuring officer role.
Gordhan, widely seen as a Ramaphosa man (as opposed to enforcer), has picked up enemies along the way. Unlikely tactical alliances have built up in his wake. Elements within the black professionals fraternity see him as anti-transformation. They are joined by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, Julius Malema’s EFF and, lately, labour federation and the ANC’s alliance partner Cosatu.
As has often happened with state-owned enterprises during the past decade, the ANC factions have entered the fray. Last month Abram Masango, a former senior executive at Eskom, was arrested and is due in court later in January. The charges against Masango are seen as a proxy attack on Ramaphosa’s deputy, David Mabuza.
Unsurprisingly, last Thursday David Mabuza, who helped deliver Ramaphosa’s victory, aimed his guns at Gordhan, by suggesting the president was misled about the likelihood of load-shedding. Attempts to downplay this rift are failing.
What occurred between Thursday’s statement by David Mabuza, Jabu Mabuza’s resignation and calls for Eskom’s reporting lines to be moved from Gordhan to Gwede Mantashe’s minerals & energy ministry is the subject of a much longer piece.
The point remains, however: changing Eskom’s reporting lines won’t resolve its problems. Mantashe shares in the blame faced by Gordhan over Eskom. And changing the board will not shift the dial. However, in the short term all of these changes will constrain De Ruyter’s prospects of success.
The fact is Eskom’s recovery has very little to do with the current wrangling. In effect, Ramaphosa is being asked to choose between saving himself or Gordhan. From weekend interviews, Gordhan appears to have resigned himself to being reshuffled.
It is hard to see how he can survive the latest putsch against him, especially since the present anti-Gordhan onslaught has been joined by Cosatu.
• Dludlu, a former Sowetan editor, is executive for strategy and public affairs at the Small Business Institute.
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