The government has named Tshediso Matona as chief executive of Eskom.
Matona’s appointment had been approved at a cabinet meeting in Cape Town yesterday, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said. He had been selected from a shortlist of three names submitted by the board and would take up the post on September 1.
Matona, a career civil servant, will run a utility that provides 95 percent of South Africa’s power, has more than 5.2 million customers and employs about 46 900 people.
Among his most pressing priorities will be to ensure Eskom fills a R225 billion cash flow shortfall for the five years to March 2018 and to avoid having its rating downgraded to junk next month.
“Clearly, there has to be a strategic change of direction at Eskom for it to work more efficiently,” Brown said. “This is what I trust Tshediso Matona will be taking forward.”
Matona, 52, studied economics and politics at UCT and obtained a master’s degree in development economics from the University of East Anglia. He has certificates in executive management and infrastructure development from Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government.
He has served as the director-general of the Department of Public Enterprises, which oversees eight state companies including Eskom, since 2010. He was previously the director- general of the Department of Trade and Industry, and a trade diplomat at the South African embassy to the UN and the World Trade Organisation.
The Black Business Council said he was the right person for the job, citing his experience as a leader, a public servant, and accounting officer for the two government departments.
His CV on the Department of Public Enterprises website lists no work experience in private companies.
“I would have thought you would’ve wanted a chief executive who has some experience running a large and complex organisation,” said Anton Eberhard, a professor at UCT’s Graduate School of Business.
“You need someone who is going to bring a hard edge, someone from the private sector who’s going to have to deal with huge issues of cost containment, improved efficiencies.”
Brown said Eskom had a leadership problem that would be addressed through other management appointments. “Matona has a clear understanding of which way [the] government would like to go.”
Collin Matjila, who has served as Eskom’s acting chief executive since March 27, will return to his position as a non-executive director. – Bloomberg