Whitney Mabiya
State owned energy company, Eskom has revealed that it will appoint a new Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) by the end of this year to fill the leadership void which have been there since the resignation of André de Ruyter in February 2023.
However, before doing so, it needs to secure the ultimate authorisation from Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
After making controversial accusations of corruption at Eskom against certain African National Congress (ANC) executives, De Ruyter resigned from his position. The utility, already beset by operational difficulties, budgetary constraints, and regular power shedding, became even more unstable after he left.
Three applicants have been selected by the Eskom Board for the CEO role, and their names have been sent to Gordhan for review. It is anticipated that the minister would make a choice after considering the contenders.
The appointment of a permanent CEO, according to board chairperson Mteto Nyati, is an urgent matter to advance towards stabilising Eskom’s administration and resolving the organisation’s urgent problems.
Nyati conveyed assurances that the Minister would act promptly, enabling Eskom to proceed and choose an entirely new board before this year concludes.
Meanwhile, in the most recent fiscal year, Eskom reported a huge deficit, but board chair Mteto Nyati insisted that it was necessary in order to maintain operations.
Following the announcement of an R23 billion net loss in October.The state-owned electricity company briefed the Public Enterprises portfolio committee on its financial results and 2022–2023 annual report on Wednesday.
Mteto Nyati said, “The reason we spent so much of this money was largely because of the open cycle gas turbines, which are costing us a fortune, but we have to use them because we want to keep the lights on.
If we don’t, I think it was the South African Reserve Bank which established that the cost of load shedding at stage 6 is about R900 million a day, she added on.
“I think it’s the right decision the leadership of Eskom made to make sure we minimise the impact to the economy whilst we are working on getting ourselves out of the dependence on open cycle gas turbines going forward.”
