Former Eskom spokesperson and communications specialist Khulu Phasiwe has died at the age of 52.
His family said Phasiwe died on Monday after a seizure. He had been having seizures for several years.
His death has prompted tributes from colleagues and people across South Africa’s media and communications industries.
Phasiwe had a career spanning more than two decades, beginning in financial journalism before moving into corporate communications. He worked as a journalist at Business Day and Business Report before joining Eskom in 2008. He worked in the utility’s media department and later became deputy spokesperson before being appointed national spokesperson in 2015.
His time at Eskom placed him at the centre of some of the utility’s most difficult years. South Africa was experiencing rolling load-shedding, while Eskom was under growing pressure over its finances, ageing power stations, maintenance problems and the reliability of the national electricity supply. As the utility’s public face, Phasiwe was frequently called on to explain power cuts and to respond to journalists' questions about Eskom’s operations and its ongoing challenges.
He also had to communicate with the public during a period of intense scrutiny of Eskom’s leadership and governance. The utility was facing questions linked to allegations of state capture, the departures and appointments of senior executives and concerns about its financial position.
In 2019, after more than a decade at Eskom and about four years as its national spokesperson, Phasiwe resigned from the utility. Reflecting on his time there, he described working as Eskom’s spokesperson as being like working in a “war zone”. He said he wanted to take a break, spend time with his family and consider his next career move.
Phasiwe continued his career in communications after leaving Eskom. In May 2024, he was appointed spokesperson for the Public Protector of South Africa, bringing his experience in journalism and communications to the institution. He later joined Air Traffic and Navigation Services, where he was head of corporate affairs and communications at the time of his death.
The African Media & Communication Forum has paid tribute to Phasiwe, describing his contribution to the African media and communications sector as invaluable.
His career reflected the changing path of many journalists into strategic communications, while his years at Eskom made him a familiar voice to South Africans during one of the country’s most prolonged electricity crises.