Is there still time for the government or the Eskom board to contact Andy Calitz? He was seen as the front-runner pipped at the post by André de Ruyter for the Eskom CEO job in 2019. Calitz found out through the media that someone else got the job; not even a rejection letter.
A South African who started his career at Eskom, Calitz worked for energy giant Shell in Australia, China, Russia and India before becoming CEO of LNG Canada. His employer is a multinational joint venture between Shell; PetroChina; Kogas, South Korea's state natural gas company; and Mitsubishi, Japan's largest trading company.
Many in Pretoria feel they chose the wrong guy in De Ruyter after he attacked the ANC's political and ideological moorings in an interview with eNCA's Annika Larsen.
“There's a narrative that the state should control everything. Unfortunately, the ghosts of Marx and Lenin still haunt the halls of Luthuli House. People are still firmly committed to a 1980s-style ideology. They still address each other as comrade, which is, frankly, embarrassing. They use words like 'lumpen proletariat', which is ridiculous because these things were last said in 1980s East Germany,” he said.
De Ruyter shows deep disdain for his former employers, who are themselves shocked at his conduct.
Of course, the uproar from Pretoria and Luthuli House is disingenuous. But this is a game with no winners.
De Ruyter will be shunned for the manner in which he spoke out. The government also earns no kudos having felt, belatedly, he was not up to the job. It ought to have acted on the issues De Ruyter raised and should have taken the Eskom board to task for poor performance. That would trickle down to the CEO.
De Ruyter and the government had no problem with each other when things were rosy. The Eskom board was artificially kept weak, something that gave De Ruyter a direct line to the political kingpins in Pretoria. It was only late last year when he lost political cover that he suddenly realised things had been bad all along.
Finding the right candidate for Eskom will take years. And anyone accepting that of electricity minister will receive a poisoned chalice.
No sane person will want De Ruyter's old job. He and his predecessors felt it was a snakepit. The circumstances of De Ruyter’s departure — and the terrible idea of creating an electricity ministry — should send a message that Eskom is a no-go zone.
Calitz will thank his lucky stars he was not given the job in 2019.
He has been doing exciting things in Canada. His company is building a $40bn (about R733bn) liquefied natural gas project, recognised as Canada's largest private-sector investment. He enjoys good relationships and recognition from the government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Former Tshwane mayor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is on many people's lips for the new minister of electricity role. He is the head of the newly created investment and infrastructure unit in the Presidency. His thoughts are well-organised and he can be impressive in presenting slides with beautiful diagrams. In the land of the blind, someone who understands PowerPoint and Excel is king.
We are still waiting to see his leadership skills. He left Tshwane in a sorry mess, having spoken big about modernising the administration and delivering services to residents and business.
Some feel his academic training as a civil engineer will come in handy. Well, yes and no. Some of the work at Eskom requires different types of engineers, such as electrical and chemical specialists.
In any event, we have a small skills pool and two key vacancies: CEO and minister of electricity. I suspect the latter post was created as a way of keeping mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s hands off Eskom.
Now President Cyril Ramaphosa has to finish his tactical moves.
Finding the right candidate for Eskom will take years. And anyone accepting the electricity portfolio will receive a poisoned chalice.
The CEO vacuum will elevate the board's role, tempting it to become involved in executive functions. The politicians will do what they know best: interfere. By the time a CEO is chosen, all the benefits of the debt package provided by finance minister Enoch Godongwana will have long evaporated.
Rearranging the deck chairs will not help if the political ship is holed and taking on enough water to sink it and the economy. Only when we deal with the political problem — a decided lack of a plan — will the economy be managed better.
* Mkokeli is lead partner at public affairs consultancy Mkokeli Advisory
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