Eskom likely to have new CEO by end of May

Eskom may have a new CEO and chief financial officer by the end of May.

The power utility’s chairman Jabu Mabuza told Business Day on Thursday that the appointments were imminent.

“We have submitted to the minister [Pravin Gordhan] the names for the CEO. We have also submitted the names for the chief financial officer. The minister is going through his process to get the cabinet decision.

“The minister has unfortunately been traveling, but I have no doubt we will get this issue sorted this month.”

The power utility has been led by acting CEO Phakamani Hadebe since March, following the resignation of former acting CEO Sean Maritz, shortly before he was to appear at a disciplinary hearing.

He faced charges related to his approval of a payment to a Hong Kong company after Eskom secured a R25bn loan from another Chinese firm.

He also wrote to McKinsey, absolving it of repaying a R1.6bn that was unlawfully paid to the US consulting firm and Trillian.

Mabuza, who was speaking at the Top 500 company awards in Johannesburg on Thursday, said the South African economy had turned the corner, but the road to transformation would be “slow and hard” to muster even 2% economic growth.

This week, the IMF revised SA’s growth outlook to 1.5% for 2018 and 1.7% for 2019. This is in line with the Treasury’s expectation. “Two percent, good as it may sound given where we’re at, is not good enough if we are to confront the challenges of unemployment and inequality.”

Mabuza said business required certainty on redistribution of land, which had to be addressed with “cool headed ness and less hysteria”.

He said, closure was necessary on the mining charter. Corruption in the public and private sector had to be penalised harshly and the government also had to act on the rule of law, following rising crime and gender-based violence.