Public Enterprises’ Pravin Gordhan says there will also soon be changes to Eskom’s management team, as the ailing power utility undergoes restructuring
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has announced a new Eskom board that will be chaired by previous chief executive Mpho Makwana.
On Friday afternoon, Gordhan said there will also soon be changes to Eskom’s management team as the power utility undergoes restructuring. The new board will make the changes to management.
“The board will evaluate who sits where, in which chair and what kind of responsibilities [they have] as we undergo some of these changes,” Gordhan said.
The announcement of the new board comes as South Africans endure another bout of load-shedding, which continues to hamstring the country’s economy. The ongoing energy crisis has stirred widespread frustration with Eskom’s management led by André de Ruyter.
Gordhan hinted at efforts to strengthen Eskom’s board during an interview with the Mail & Guardian in May.
The cabinet approved the new Eskom board in a meeting on Friday. Its term starts on 1 October. Makwana, who is also the chair at Nedbank, will lead a board which includes five people with engineering backgrounds.
The new board includes Busisiwe Vilakazi, Lwazi Goqwana, Clive le Roux, Fatima Gany, Ayanda Mafuleka, Mteto Nyati, Tsakani Mthombeni, Leslie Mkhabela, Claudelle von Eck, Tryphosa Ramano and Bheki Ntshalintshali.
Gordhan met the previous board on Tuesday morning, where he thanked them for their services and informed them that the board would be reconstituted. Shortly thereafter, Busi Mavuso, the chief executive of Business Leadership South Africa, resigned from the board.
In a statement released after the meeting, the department of public enterprises said the minister had been “in constant engagements with the board on various matters pertaining to the current generation challenges and other energy related matters such as procurement, recruitment of former and experienced Eskom employees and combating fraud and corruption”.
Gordhan noted that level four load-shedding will likely be reduced by the middle of next week. “Regrettably, I’m informed by management that there are still active efforts to disrupt operations and some of the power stations,” the minister said.
“And, at some of the power stations, there is a deliberate climate of resistance to better performance, to making sure that the right kinds of operations are undertaken and even experienced operators appear to deliberately make sure that there is no function of key parts of the power station.”
The time has come, Gordhan said, for everyone at Eskom — management included — to demonstrate that they can better operate the utility. Doing so would make a huge difference to the economy, he said.
The resistance to better performance at Eskom, the minister added, “undermines the economy and the confidence of the population in Eskom itself”.
“I think it is fair to ask whether, as during this capture period, we now have Eskom being used as a political football again. And the appeal that we will make to all parties concerned is: ‘Hands off Eskom’,” Gordhan said.
“Let the management and the board do the work. Do not interfere in that arena. And if there is any political debate, discourse and exchanges that need to take place, let that happen within the political domain and not within the energy domain itself.”