Business leaders see light in Eskom’s new chief

The appointment of Phakamani Hadebe as group CEO of Eskom has been largely welcomed by business organisations.

Hadebe has been at the helm of the power utility in an acting capacity since the beginning of 2018 and the confirmation of his appointment, announced by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday was a vote of confidence.

The Black Business Council praised the Eskom board and the government for appointing a “seasoned executive. Mr Hadebe is a seasoned executive who turned around struggling institutions such as the Land Bank. The Black Business Council is confident that, with the necessary support, he will manage to stabilise and turn around this critically important company…. He has proven himself in the few months that he acted as interim CEO of Eskom that he could establish good governance processes and address corruption and state capture,” Black Business Council CEO Kganki Matabane said.

Business Leadership SA welcomed the announcement and said it was looking forward to the appointment of a chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Eskom.

Gordhan also announced new boards for Transnet, SA Express, with Tryphosa Ramano at the helm and for Denel, which will be chaired by Monhla Hlahla. Gordhan said that SA Express was in dire straits and had been crippled with malfeasance. He has put in an intervention team to investigate and to determine the airline’s technical capacities.