Public enterprises minister Lynne Brown has seconded Transnet CEO Brian Molefe and appointed him as the acting Eskom CEO with immediate effect after Tshediso Matona was suspended in March.

Molefe has been in his role at Transnet since 2011 and was the Public Investment Corporation CEO from 2003 to 2010.

Matona was suspended when Eskom announced it would start an independent inquiry into the state utility, which has been battling with maintenance of its generators and has been implementing load shedding.

Brown also announced that multinational lawfirm Dentons had been selected to conduct the deep dive inquiry into Eskom’s financial troubles.

Brown, who acknowledged on Wednesday that Eskom is spending R1bn/month on emergency diesel supplies and that this has already gobbled up the R8bn profit it announced in its interim financials at the end of last year, is expecting the deep dive report within three months.

“The replacement for … Molefe at Transnet will be announced on Monday says … Brown,” SA Gov News tweeted.

Brown said she didn’t expect the country to go into stage three load shedding this week, saying we need to work on the country’s demand side, according to SA Gov News.

Molefe said his immediate priority is to minimise the current load shedding that the country is experiencing, according to SA Gov News.

Molefe has “so far been the most astute, successful head of a state enterprise in SA. Hope Eskom won’t be his Waterloo,” tweeted Sure Kamhunga in reaction to the announcement. — Fin24