Government on Friday appointed Dan Marokane as the next CEO of Eskom, which has implemented the worst rolling blackouts on record this year.
Marokane, who previously held senior Eskom positions, including as its head of group capital, will rejoin no later than 31 March of next year, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said in a statement.
Marokane has been acting CEO of sugar producer Tongaat Hulett since the end of February.
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that Marokane was expected to be appointed as Eskom CEO.
Eskom has been without a permanent CEO since February when then-CEO Andre de Ruyter left with immediate effect and chief financial officer Calib Cassim took over in an interim capacity.
The debt-laden company has struggled to keep the lights on for more than a decade. But this year power outages have been particularly bad, leaving households and businesses in the dark for up to 10 hours a day.
Denel CEO
“He will hit the ground running. That is what Eskom and South Africa need right now,” the chairman of Eskom’s board of directors, Mteto Nyati, said in a statement issued by the utility.
In a separate statement on Friday, Gordhan announced the appointment of Tsepo Monaheng as the new CEO of state-owned defence company Denel. — Bhargav Acharya, (c) 2023 Reuters