A new leader at the helm of Eskom would need the support of the government, financial institutions and the presidency to rebuild the beleaguered entity.
Energy experts weighed in on the electricity crisis as Eskom boss André de Ruyter resigned this week and power cuts were ramped up to stage 6 on Friday, the worst outage level on record.
More than 6 000 megawatts needs to be shed from the national grid which mean at least six hours a day without power for most South Africans.
Energy expert Professor Mark Swilling believed that Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was the key to procuring additional energy to stabilise the national grid.
Mantashe's constant attack on the outgoing Eskom CEO has been widely blamed for De Ruyter's resignation.
Eskom has had 13 CEOs in the past decade. The hunt is on yet again for a CEO to fill what many are calling South Africa's toughest job.
Chairperson of the Eskom board Mpho Makwana said an extensive search for the next CEO would be conducted.
Saddled with creaking coal-fired power stations and a mountain of debt, Eskom has struggled for years to meet electricity demand in Africa's most industrialised country.
This year the most electricity has been shed from the national grid to date, meaning record power cuts that have led to public frustration, damaged businesses and prompted calls for resignations at Eskom.
De Ruyter has agreed to stay beyond his stipulated 30-days' notice period as the utility tries to find a replacement and will leave office on March 31, 2023.
Swilling believed that whoever replaces De Ruyter would deal with the systemic challenges that had plunged Eskom to implement unprecedented rates of power cuts.
“The new person, whoever it will be, will need to focus on building a coalition of collaborators who would include the key departments such as Public Enterprises, Minerals and Energy, the Presidency and the financial sector.”
Swilling said Eskom’s turn-around strategy did not depend solely on the CEO but Mantashe, as the key person to procure additional energy needs to “come on board”.
“Under De Ruyter Eskom tried to do its best under very difficult circumstances to prevent the total collapse of the energy system which would have lasted for a minimum of five days.
"But he needed Mantashe as he is the only authority who can procure additional energy to come on board. Eskom does not have such power. Mantashe delayed this process and that worsened the energy crisis. If he had done so earlier, we would not have the crisis," said Swilling.
Last week, Mantashe accused Eskom of agitating for a "coup" due to the prolonged load shedding.
Swilling said even when a new boss was found, load shedding would continue and warned that it would even get worse.
He added that due to delays in maintenance and repairs of the power generation units across the power stations, some of the units needed a total overhaul.
"The damage was so severe that Eskom won't be able to fix everything quickly without implementing load shedding. We need new energy generation capacity on the grid and the quickest way is with renewables,“ added Swilling.
However, Mantashe has openly alluded to sticking to coal for the foreseeable future. He told the African Energy Week conference in October that the demand for coal in the Western countries due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict had soared by up to 720%, with the turnover totalling R130 billion.
Swilling said De Ruyter's resignation could also be interpreted in the context of the "strengthened interest in coal".
De Ruyter kick-started SA’s just energy transition through the repurposing of the Komati power station into a renewable generation site.
Funded by the World Bank, the project focused on job retention, re-skilling and creating new jobs.
He also initiated the leasing of Eskom land to private sector operators to develop renewable energy plants.
"His actions have been widely applauded internationally for developing a prototype model for countries to transition from coal with minimal job losses and strong community upliftment components,“ said Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA).
The organisation was “extremely concerned” that international support for SA’s just energy transition might now be at risk if a change in CEO signalled a change in approach."
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told the Progressive Business Forum on the sidelines of the ANC elective conference, that an alternative energy source need to be found, and it did not matter where it came from.
Another energy expert Chris Yelland said "mega" energy projects took longer to build and would not bring relief in the next two to three years.
"Public procurement is very slow, construction is also slow. We need to build smaller renewable energy projects, we need more of these to spread out the risk.“