‘We are attending to the problem; please be patient’

Amid growing calls for Eskom’s board and its chief executive, André de Ruyter, to be sacked over the intermittent load shedding, the power utility’s board chair has appealed for patience from South Africans as the country buckles under the pressure of rolling blackouts.

Prof Malegapuru Makgoba yesterday said the board was not sitting on its hands and doing nothing to resolve the energy crisis, adding according to expert advice, it was possible for load shedding to end within two years.

“This is not an unsolvable problem and the plan that Eskom and the presidency have put together is the ideal way,” Makgoba said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.

“We need to be a little more patient and understand that it is not an event but a progressive increment in the elimination of load shedding.”

Makgoba, a medical doctor by profession, said the board had done a lot to improve governance at Eskom and he did not believe the parastatal’s board required people with engineering skills to adequately do its job and end load shedding.

“This board, despite its deficiencies, has improved the governance at Eskom. I’m comfortable that, as a board, we have discharged the responsibility and the mandate that we were given.

“We have a board of about eight people, with five subcommittees. In total, the board meets 34 times a year.

“So, we’re not sitting and not doing our work. It may not be adequate, but we’ve put a lot of effort in trying to steer the ship that is Eskom,” Makgoba said.

Makgoba based his assessment of the performance of the board on a report done by an independent organisation – he didn’t mention which – that evaluated the work of the board in the past two financial years.

The board he leads inherited “an old, ageing car that requires repair and maintenance all the time”, he said, referring to Eskom’s old power stations that constantly trip.

“It was inevitable that the energy availability factor would deteriorate over time because the machines have been running at high rates. [And we’ve been] almost in the red for a very long time and they’re beginning to show the effects of that abuse.”

Makgoba said he knew nothing about pending changes to the Eskom board, following reports that Cabinet was considering it.

He did, however, admit the board was facing several challenges with a shortage of members with various skills and expertise, adding it was short of about seven or eight members.

“I’m not aware of any impending changes.

“I’m just aware that the board has not been complete for a long time and we’ve made requests for the complementing of the board over the past two years.

“I’ve been in touch with [Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan] – that’s as much as I’m aware of.

“On the changes, I’m not familiar with that,” Makgoba said.