Boss who dragged Eskom out of dark age
1924-2016
JOHN Maree, who has died in Johannesburg at the age of 91, saved Eskom from the brink of collapse in the ’80s and turned it into one of the world’s top power utilities.
When he was appointed chairman by then-president PW Botha in 1984, Eskom had become a national embarrassment. It was a financial mess and the butt of jokes about its inefficiency and bungling. As far as most people were concerned, “Escom”, as it was then called, stood for “easy, slow and comfortable”.
When Botha asked him to take the job, Maree made it clear that he would brook no political interference. The first time a minister set foot in his office, he told Botha, the president would have his resignation.
Maree, who was 60 at the time of his appointment, knew nothing about the industry when he took over. He was the first leader of Eskom who was not an engineer. He was an accountant and turnaround specialist, a good listener who got to the heart of complex problems quickly, and an effective communicator of solutions.
A physically large, robust man with hands the size of shovels and a steely smile, he was not someone to be trifled with.
To fill the gaps in his technical knowledge he relied on his chief executive, Dr Ian McRae, appointed at the same time, an engineer who had worked himself up from being an apprentice fitter. Very different temperamentally — Maree larger than life, McRae soft-spoken and professorial — they formed a formidable partnership.
When Maree arrived, there were 66 000 employees and he heard that the board hoped to increase this to 72 000 in the next year. He persuaded it to agree to an immediate 10% staff cut instead. Within five years there were 50 000 staff and within 10 years 39 000.
He found that the management of Eskom consisted of engineers who knew little or nothing about how to run it as a business.
He introduced concepts unheard of at Eskom, such as “customer needs”, “cost-effective”, “maximising value” and “performance management”. He implemented professional standards, filled positions with people who were qualified and had specialist knowledge, replaced engineers with accountants and professional managers, reduced spending and balanced investments with capital availability.
When he became chairman, Eskom was prohibited by law from providing electricity to black communities. He insisted on “electricity for all” and with McRae launched a drive to bring affordable, safe electricity to the townships.
Also in defiance of the law, he tackled segregation in Eskom and began hiring black people to fill technical and managerial positions previously denied them. He made it clear to the government that to be a top-performing utility, Eskom had to fast-track the development of staff from all races. It took him two years to get the regulations changed to do all this.
He worked his political connections right up to Botha, whom he knew socially because they both had holiday houses in Wilderness. At a 1987 meeting he got Botha to agree that black people could assume executive positions at Eskom, including on the electricity council. By the time Maree retired in 1997, more than half of all managerial and technical professionals at Eskom were black, including his successor as chair, Reuel Khoza.
Every year Maree and McRae met senior and middle managers in regional offices, power stations, distribution and service departments to hear their problems and discuss solutions. This kind of thing was unheard of. Their visits became known as the I&J show, and had a marked effect on morale, which, when Maree arrived, had been rock bottom.
Maree was born on August 13 1924 in Middelburg in the Eastern Cape, where his father was the dentist. He matriculated at Springs High School on the East Rand. His father died when he was 13 and money was short. He spent five years working in a dress shop, hanging curtains and selling furniture, before saving enough to enrol for a BCom at the University of the Witwatersrand.
When he graduated in 1948 he was awarded the Alexander Aitken medal for the most distinguished graduate in the faculty of commerce. After three years clerking for a one-man stockbroking outfit at the JSE, he joined Union Free State Mining Corporation as an accountant until 1967.
After a brief spell as deputy chairman of Calan he became in 1970 executive chairman of Rand Mines Properties, a subsidiary of Barlow Rand. He also ran Barlow Rand's industrial electronics businesses which included Marconi SA that supplied radar. In 1979 prime minister PW Botha asked that he be seconded to head the state weapons manufacturer Armscor, whose importance to the regime had become critical after the imposition of a UN arms boycott on the country in 1977.
Maree’s strategy at Armscor was to make maximum use of the private sector and he reorganised it accordingly. By the time he left after three years, more than 70% of its production was being contracted out to private sector companies.
In 1992, then-president FW de Klerk made him chairman of Denel, which exported armoured vehicles, mines and weapons made by Armscor. He retired from Denel in 1995. After Armscor, he returned to Barlow Rand as deputy chairman.
In 1981, he was named one of the top five executives in the country by the Sunday Times.
Among other appointments he was chairman of Nedbank until 1997. Two years later it launched a hostile takeover bid for Standard Bank which was headed by his son, Jacko.
Maree is survived by his wife, Joy, a Springbok golfer, and Jacko. — Chris Barron
Eskom was prohibited from providing electricity to black communities. He insisted on ‘electricity for all’