Cabinet has approved a new board of directors at struggling state-owned power utility Eskom, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said on Friday.
Gordhan told a news conference that the new board would be chaired by Mpho Makwana.
Former Altron and MTN South Africa CEO Mteto Nyati is among the appointments.
The full list of board members is below:
- Mpho Makwana
- Busisiwe Vilakazi
- Clive le Roux
- Lwazi Goqwana
- Leslie Mkhabela
- Mteto Nyati
- Fathima Gany
- Ayanda Mafukela
- Tsakani Mthombeni
- Claudelle von Eck
- Tryphosa Ramano
- Bheki Ntshalintshali
Rod Crompton will be retained on the board “to ensure continuity”. CEO André de Ruyter and chief financial officer Calib Cassim, both executive directors, will remain in the roles.
The appointment of the new board, made up of senior business and trade union figures, comes after electricity outages reached record levels this year.
Saddled with unreliable coal-fired power stations and a mountain of debt, Eskom has struggled to meet electricity demand for more than a decade.
Slow progress
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been trying to reform Eskom to make it more efficient since becoming head of state in 2018, but his administration has made slow progress, fuelling public frustration.
Eskom has had vacancies on its board for several years. Since January 2020, its board has been headed by Malegapuru William Makgoba, who took up the post after the previous chairman resigned during another period of major power cuts. — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media, with additional reporting by Alexander Winning and Kopano Gumbi, (c) 2022 Reuters