Don’t bother applying for the job of Eskom CEO if you haven’t had a call from Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe or his close allies.
The R247 billion company with over 40,000 employees has finally advertised the top job made vacant by the resignation of Andre de Ruyter in December last year.
De Ruyter fell out with Mantashe, who accused him of being part of a plan to sabotage the ANC government by failing to control load shedding.
Mantashe has elbowed out ministers and top executives in Eskom and South Africa’s energy sector to become the ANC’s pointman on energy.
His latest victim is Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, once an untouchable ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa — but after a bruising battle with Mantashe’s backers in the ANC, Gordhan found himself outside the powerful national executive committee of the ANC.
Whoever gets the job will also have to curry favour with the new Eskom board which has been accused of dividing the top management at Eskom.
This week, energy analyst Chris Yelland confirmed noticing some bad blood between Eskom executives and the board.
“I’m hearing the Eskom CEO, COO and CFO are estranged from the DPE and DMRE ministers and the new Eskom board. The CEO, COO and CFO were not invited to the last media briefing, which in my view turned into a deeply disturbing affair, with wrong, misleading and incomplete information put out.”
It has taken Eskom almost two months to advertise the job of chief executive following the resignation of De Ruyter. The new CEO will be Eskom’s 10th, including acting CEOs, since 2014.
The post advertised requires an executive with “experience in raising capital and managing large capital projects”. Most importantly, the power utility boss must have, “experience in managing a dynamic and robust stakeholder environment.”
The new boss will inherit a company in the middle of an unbundling process and be expected to drive the contentious R150 billion “Just Transition” move from coal-fired power stations to renewable energy sources.
