Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has welcomed the appointment of three executives aimed at stabilising Eskom.
“Cabinet this week approved the appointments of Dr Ben Ngubane as chairman of Eskom’s board, Brian Molefe as chief executive and Anoj Singh as chief financial officer (CFO) of the state-owned company. I welcome these appointments and they are part of my ongoing interventions to stabilise Eskom,” she said on Friday.
Ngubane had been appointed the acting chairman on March 30. This followed the resignation of chairman Zola Tsotsi.
“Together with Mr Molefe, who was seconded from Transnet in mid-April 2015, they have been successful in bringing stability to the company while dealing with a constrained grid.
“The executive was further strengthened when Mr Singh was seconded from Transnet as acting CFO from August 1, 2015 for a period of six months.
“I want to thank the Transnet board for agreeing to second Mr Molefe and Mr Singh to Eskom,” said Brown.
Now that they have been permanently appointed at Eskom, the minister has requested the board to start the process to fill these vacancies at Transnet.
Ngubane, the former minister of arts, culture, science and technology, and also ambassador to Japan, has vast experience in the health sector, both local and international.
He has also served on the boards of various children and community based organisations.
Molefe’s qualifications include an honorary doctorate in engineering from the University of Glasgow Caledonian; Masters of business leadership, University of South Africa; post-graduate diploma in Economics, London University.
The new CFO qualified as a chartered accountant in 2000.
At present, he is the current CFO at Transnet.
Meanwhile, the public enterprise ministry has confirmed the board of arms manufacturer, Denel, has placed its chief executive, Riaz Salojee, CFO Fikile Mhlontlo and company secretary Elizabeth Africa on special leave on Wednesday pending a probe into various matters.
“On the matter I can only say that the board is dealing with it, and Brown has been kept informed of what is going on,” said a ministry spokesman. The move brings to a close a period of turmoil.
Former chief executive Tshediso Matona and three other executives were placed on suspension in March, less than six months after Matona had taken up the post, to allow for an inquiry instituted by the then-chairman, Zola Tsotsi.
Matona parted ways with Eskom and has been appointed head of the National Planning Commission secretariat. Tsotsi stepped down as board chairman.
Molefe has been the acting chief executive since April, when he was drafted in from the state rail freight firm Transnet. He has been credited with lifting morale at Eskom and implementing a strategy to push ahead with maintenance of its ageing fleet of power stations while minimising load shedding.
Brown said the appointments were “part of my ongoing interventions to stabilise Eskom”.
Ngubane and Molefe had brought stability while dealing with a constrained grid.
“I want to thank the Transnet board for agreeing to second Molefe and Singh to Eskom,” Brown said.
“Now they have been permanently appointed at Eskom, I have requested (that) the board start the process to fill these vacancies at Transnet.” Brown said.
President of the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vusi Khumalo hailed the announcement as “a positive move”.
“The challenges are still there, but they’ve shown some results in the reduction of load shedding, so I think it was the right thing to do because we can’t afford to have people acting ad infinitum,” Khumalo said.
“Now there’s permanence and we are looking forward to a positive contribution towards the resolution of the Eskom (challenges).”
Acting Cosatu spokesman Norman Mampane said the union federation had called for leadership consistency at Eskom and it welcomed the developments.
“In any organisation, if there are too many acting personnel it defeats the execution of day-to-day functions. We believe such appointments assist the utility to continue to deliver on its mandate,” Mampane said.
The bringing to commercial operation of the first unit of the long-delayed Medupi coal-fired power station was an example of stability beginning to pay off.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim, whose union has been involved in labour disputes with contractors at Medupi and Kusile power stations, said he would comment later.
Irvin has accused Molefe of being a union-basher, following long-running battles between Numsa and Transnet under Molefe.
Sunday Independent