If you have a postgraduate degree in engineering, at least 15 years' experience in senior management and would like to lead a struggling power utility with R246.5bn in revenue and R400bn in debt, there is a perfect opportunity for you.
Eskom has finally released its advertisement for a new CEO and is accepting applications to replace outgoing CEO André de Ruyter, who announced his resignation in December. The deadline is month-end.
“Key to this role will be effective partnering with the chairman, board, executive committee and relevant stakeholders to ensure that Eskom’s strategies are financially prudent and operationally focused, to ensure efficient and sustainable delivery of electricity supply,” the advertisement says.
The next CEO will be expected to have a track record of “working in a complex environment” and leading a business turnaround; “stabilising an organisation in crisis” is a listed key responsibility.
Left unsaid is that whoever takes the job might have to contend with a high level of risk, in view of reports of an attempt to poison De Ruyter and the corruption that still plagues the coal supply chain.
Eskom says the new CEO will be expected to create a high-performance organisation and explore commercial opportunities “that will translate into consistent and profitable profit growth”.
De Ruyter told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts last month that South Africa needed to invest an estimated R1.2-trillion in the electricity sector over the next decade. He said the government must move decisively on plans to increase capacity.
Eskom has had more than a dozen CEOs since 1994. De Ruyter, who took over in January 2020 and is set to step down at the end of next month, has been the longest-serving since Brian Dames held the post between mid-2010 and early 2014.
When the ANC took power in 1994, the incumbent CEO was Ian McRae, who had been in the post since 1985. He started working at Eskom as a fitter in 1947.
Allen Morgan was appointed in 1994 and served until 2000, when he was replaced by Thulani Gcabashe, who held the job until 2007.
Jacob Maroga took over from him and, in a briefing to parliament’s portfolio committee on public enterprises in 2007, became the first Eskom CEO to warn of load-shedding. Early the following year daily load-shedding became a reality, and 15 years later the situation has grown significantly worse.
Mpho Makwana — who was recently appointed chair of Eskom — succeeded Maroga as CEO in November 2009, holding the job just eight months until Dames was appointed.
Collin Matjila, who served as acting CEO from April to September in 2014 and was replaced by Tshediso Matona, who had the job until April 2015.
Former Transnet Group CEO Brian Molefe then began his tenure, which ended under a cloud in December 2016. He was followed by a series of interim CEOs the first of whom was Matshela Koko, who left in 2017.
The Zondo commission found both Molefe and Koko to have been pivotal in helping the Gupta family. Koko has since been charged with corruption involving Kusile contracts, and Molefe faces charges arising from his time at Transnet.
After Koko’s departure in June 2017, Johnny Dladla took over until October of that year. Sean Maritz’s appointment lasted until January 2018. Former interim Land Bank CEO Phakamani Hadebe took the reins for a year before he resigned in June 2019.
The position was vacant for a month before the late Jabu Mabuza stepped in. De Ruyter, who had been CEO of Nampak, began his tenure in January 2020.
The Eskom CEO is not the only strategic energy position that has seen exits in recent months. This week it was reported that Daniel Mminele, the head of the presidential climate finance task team, the body charged with planning South Africa’s energy transition and green energy investment strategy, has resigned.
In October last year, the head of Eskom’s energy transition department, Mandy Rambharos, announced she was quitting to take up a position at the Environmental Defence Fund in New York.
Independent energy analyst Chris Yelland said the reasons behind Mminele’s exit were not clear. “He is highly regarded, and I think it must come as some kind of disappointment.”
Yelland told Business Times that Mminele was leaving at a time when South Africa was still waiting for clarity on funding for its R1.5-trillion investment plan for a just energy transition.
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