Eskom suspends four
MATONA PROBED
THE chief executive of Eskom has been suspended while an inquiry is held into the operations of the troubled utility, its chairman said yesterday.
Eskom is facing a funding crunch as it races to bring new power plants online and has had to stage power cuts to prevent the grid from being overwhelmed.
Chairman Zola Tsotsi stressed that there was “nothing sinister” about the temporary suspension of Tshediso Matona and three other executives.
Matona was appointed in August last year to head the utility.
“To ensure that this process is as transparent and uninhibited as possible, the board has also resolved that four of its senior executives, including the chief executive, should step down for the duration of this inquiry, ” Tsotsi said, adding the probe into Eskom’s problems should take three months.
Zethembe Khoza, an Eskom nonexecutive board member and former managing executive at Telkom, will assume the position of interim chief executive, said Tsotsi.
The chairman said the independent probe would look at a number of challenges facing the utility, citing “poor performance of generation”, delays in building new plants, and cash flow issues.
Eskom said the inquiry would be conducted by “external parties, who will be selected within the next week”.
Last week, Matona said the cash- strapped utility might sell some of its assets to raise capital, including a home loan book for its employees.
Eskom ’ s funding gap to 2018 is estimated at R200-billion and it is getting a R23-billion cash injection from the government this year.
Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said: “I welcome the board’s decision to launch a comprehensive and holistic audit into the matters as highlighted.”
National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Frans Baleni said: “It means there is a collapse of governance.
“We would have expected the chairman of the board to be fired. We did raise a concern about the reinstatement of this chairman when the new board [had] been established.
“We reject the suspensions of the four executives because we were never consulted. We think that there is a bigger picture than to gun for these four executives.” –