Bheki Nxumalo has been appointed to one of the toughest jobs in South Africa, group executive for generation at Eskom, with immediate effect.

It’s not the first time Nxumalo has been in the role. He was appointed to that position in 2019, but was replaced in 2020 by Rhulani Mathebula. Eskom didn’t provide a reason for the executive reshuffle at the time.

An Eskom employee for the past 20 years, Khumalo – who replaces Mathebula in the generation role – is an “all-round business leader, comfortable in governance, people and technical aspects of the role”, the state-owned utility said on Friday. He will report directly to acting CEO Calib Cassim.

“It has been very difficult to find a suitable candidate that would hit the ground running,” said Cassim in a statement. “The generation recovery plan is in full swing. We needed someone who would passionately drive the execution of recovery plan while inspiring staff to reach beyond their reach. Recently, it occurred to us that our candidate was hidden in plain sight. That leader is Bheki Nxumalo.”

Nxumalo will have his work cut out for him, with his appointment coming in the same week that Eskom has escalated load shedding near to the record stage-7 cuts experienced earlier this year.

Prior to his appointment as head of generation, Nxumalo was CEO of Eskom Enterprise and Eskom Rotek Industries. “He has extensive operating, power station management and production experience. He was the manager at two of Eskom’s power stations and the GM at Kusile power station,” Eskom said.

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Nxumalo, who replaced Thomas Conradie, who had been acting in the role following the departure of Mathebula, said in the statement: “I literally grew up in Eskom. I strongly believe that Eskom has the technical and managerial capability to turn things around.” — (c) 2023 NewsCentral Media