Johannesburg - The chairman of South Africa’s power utility has agreed to step down.
“Eskom board and chairman Zola Tsotsi have this morning agreed to part ways amicably. Dr Ben Ngubane has been appointed acting chairman,” said Eskom on its Media Desk Twitter account (@Eskom_MediaDesk) at around 1am on Tuesday.
“Chairman Zola Tsotsi has agreed to step down to allow the board to focus on the core issues facing Eskom,” said a later tweet.
Ngubane hailed Tsotsi’s move. “Acting chairman Ben Ngubane thanked Mr Tsotsi for the selfless decision he took in placing the interests of the company first,” said a third tweet.
Earlier, Tsotsi said he faced a vote of confidence by the utility's board late on Monday, after being accused of acting improperly by suspending the chief executive.
Eskom has implemented regular power cuts this year to prevent the national grid from being overwhelmed.
The firm's CEO and three other senior executives were temporarily suspended earlier this month while an inquiry on the operations of the firm were being conducted. Standard and Poor's cut Eskom's credit status to junk, saying the suspensions had led to a loss of confidence in the utility's corporate governance.
IOL and Reuters