The newly-appointed Eskom board has officially started its work. The Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says Eskom is still dealing with many issues related to fraud and theft.
He was speaking during the announcement of the new Eskom board members in a media briefing on Friday.
He says there are still deliberate efforts to disrupt operations at some of the power stations.
Gordhan says they will increase the presence of law enforcement agencies to deal with acts of sabotage.
“We cannot have a situation where on the one hand there are people who stand on platforms and demand growth and jobs, and on the other hand members of the organisation appear to do things which undermine the efforts that are currently being made. Part of the responsibility that the new board has, is to look into these matters and to understand what the loopholes are and there are many reports as to what the loopholes are but to also ensure there is a proper level of discipline.”
In the video below, Public Enterprises Minister announces new Eskom board:
New board chair
“The new members of the board are firstly, Mpho Makwana, he’s going to be the chairperson, the next member is Dr Busisiwe Vilakazi and I’ll give you a brief CV of each of them in a moment, the next Leslie Mkhabela, Fatima Ghani, Ayanda Mafuleka, Tsakani Mthombeni, Claudelle Von Eck, Bheki Ntshalintshali, Clive le Roux and Rod Crompton.”
Makwana is currently the Independent Non-Executive Chairman of JSE-listed Arcelor Mittal South Africa Limited as well as Lead Independent Director at Nedbank
He also serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba, Illovo SA(Pty)Ltd, Gibela Rail (RF) (Pty Ltd.
He is chairperson of SAFCOL SOC Limited and family-owned business Epitome Investments (Pty) Ltd.
He also is Non-Executive at Director BioTherm Energy (PTY) Ltd; one South Africa’s foremost renewable energy companies.
He served as Non-Executive Director of Eskom between 2002 and 2011.
Energy expert analysis
Energy expert Chris Yellend says the appointment of experienced professionals to serve on the Eskom board is encouraging. They have officially started their three-year term of office.
Yellend says the right people have been picked to serve on the board.
“I’m very heartened by the type of experienced professionals that have been appointed and I’m very, very pleased that some of the noisy, discredited ex Eskom CEOs and ex Eskom acting CEOs and other executives, who are noisy and destructive in their approach have not been taken up to the board.”
BBC calls for removal of CEO and COO
Black Business Council has welcomed the appointment of the new Eskom board saying it’s balanced and appropriately skilled.
The council’s CEO Kganki Matabane says they want the new board to remove Eskom’s chief executive officer and chief operations officer as they have plunged the country into darkness and paralysed the economy.
“The black business council welcomes the new board and we are convinced that the board is very well balanced, they have the necessary experience and also they have experience to hold management account. We have been calling for the previous board to be fired mainly because they failed to hold management to account and management was basically doing as they wish. We would also like to thank President Ramaphosa for hearing our cry.”
