Four senior Eskom executives, including CEO Tshediso Matona, have been asked to step aside as the power utility embarks on a fact-finding inquiry, board chairman Zola Tsotsi said on Thursday.
“To ensure that this process is as transparent and uninhibited as possible, the board has also resolved that four of its senior executives, including the chief executive, should step down for the duration of this inquiry,” he told journalists in Johannesburg.
“There is no intent or suspicion of wrongdoing, there are no charges against them. There is no malice, there is no wrongdoing that is under consideration.”
The other three are finance director Tsholofelo Molefe, group capital executive Dan Morokane and commercial and technology executive Matshela Koko.
Tsotsi said they were asked to step down in the interest of achieving results.
It was important to note that it was an inquiry, not an investigation, into the poor performance of generation plants, delays in bringing plants on stream, the high costs of primary energy, and cash-flow problems.
Non-executive board member Zethembe Khoza would assume the position of interim CEO.
Tsotsi said the “critical” process would not last longer than three months. There was no hidden agenda behind the inquiry, but the board needed to establish a baseline of where Eskom was.
The inquiry would be independent and conducted by external parties who would be chosen in the next week.
“They will be given unfettered rights of access to all information deemed necessary for this probe to be successful,” he said.
“There is nothing sinister that is going on. It’s to enable the board to have a proper foundation to give them a platform to base decisions going forward.
“If in the course of this fact-finding exercise we encounter things that have been improper or alluding to improper conduct, obviously we have to attend to that,” he said.
“There is a huge amount of work to be done at Eskom. I do not anticipate that this exercise will be a deep dive into the areas we are concerned about.”
Other nonexecutive board members who would support Khoza were Nonkululeko Veleti in finance, Abram Masango in group capital and Edwin Mabelane in commercial and technology.
Tsotsi said the inquiry would ensure that the “situation faced by Eskom improved as expeditiously as possible”.
It would be an “honest down-to-earth inquiry”.
Responding to a question on why he did not step down, Tsotsi said: “I wish I had the time for us to sit down and really talk about this… There is nothing as misunderstood as the issue of where this company is today and where it comes from.”
He reiterated that Eskom was not in a crisis.
“There is no crisis, what we have are a set of challenges that we have to manage,” he said.
In recent months, Eskom has battled to keep the lights on since the collapse of one of its coal storage silos, diesel shortages, and maintenance issues. — Sapa
