Durban - Energy experts say Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan needs to urgently address the leadership issues at Eskom so the power utility can tackle the load-shedding crisis in the country.
They were commenting after the surprise announcement on Monday that Mpho Makwana, Eskom’s board chairperson, had stepped down. He will officially step down at the annual general meeting at the end of this month after a year on the job.
The Department of Public Enterprises announced that Mteto Nyati would be appointed as chairperson. Eskom’s acting CEO Calib Cassim’s term ends in December which would leave the power utility without a permanent CEO.
Energy expert Chris Yelland said the fact that there had been so many leadership changes at Eskom meant the power utility had major issues.
“Eskom is at a critical stage and there needs to be stable leadership at Eskom as they deal with the energy crisis. It is concerning that Makwana announced he is leaving after only being in the position for one year and now we have a new chairman.”
Yelland added that Gordhan needed to appoint stable leadership at Eskom.
“From what I understand there have been issues between Minister Gordhan and the Eskom board and this resulted in a delay in the appointment of a permanent CEO and also could be one of the reasons that Makwana has resigned. The National Transmission Company of South Africa has received its operating, trading and import and export licence from Nersa (National Energy Regulator of South Africa), however, Minister Gordhan has still not appointed a board for the transmission company.’’
Yelland said the board chairperson and CEO were critical positions.
“You’re not only attending to the energy crisis but also answering to a number of government departments and this requires strong leadership to be in these positions.”
Professor Wikus van Niekerk, Dean of Engineering at Stellenbosch University, said Gordhan was in charge of ensuring the right people were in charge at Eskom and he needed to ensure they were appointed.
“Really speaking, we have a leadership crisis at Eskom. There is no permanent CEO but it is up to Minister Gordhan to put the right people in position to move the power utility forward.”
Ruse Moleshe, the managing director of RUBK, an energy and infrastructure consulting and advisory company, agreed that Eskom needed the right leadership to make important decisions about the energy crisis.
“The ideal situation in any company is to have leadership certainty so that important decisions can be taken. It is critical therefore that Eskom ensures that a permanent CEO is appointed.”
Regarding Makwana stepping down, Gordhan said in a statement on Monday that Makwana would utilise the remainder of October to handover to the new chairperson of the board.
In the statement, Makwana said he was grateful for the opportunity afforded him to serve as board chairperson.
“I wish Eskom and its people success and thank its committed stewards for their unstinting efforts to revive the utility. I thank the minister for the positive amicable manner upon which we conclude my tenure” Makwana added.
Gordhan said the efforts to stabilise Eskom and restructure it into three subsidiaries – generation, transmission, and distribution remained on track.
“As a government we are committed to ensuring that Eskom has the right skills, talent and experience to support our pursuit of a more secure energy future for South Africans.”
Meanwhile, Van Niekerk warned that the recent reduction in load shedding stages and times was due to Kusile power station units 3 and 4 returning to service.
Van Nierkerk said two units were back to service at Kusile and two more will return to service in December.
“The return of the units has eased load shedding. We could expect the situation to get even better in December when two more units at Kusile return to service. However, remember eventually Kusile will have to be taken offline again, so this is not a permanent solution. This is not new generation capacity, its old generation coming back to service.”