New Eskom CEO Dan Marokane must fight government to stop collapse

Trade union Solidarity urged new Eskom CEO Dan Marokane to withstand external pressure to stop the power supplier’s collapse.

On Friday, the Eskom board announced the appointment of Marokane as the new Eskom group chief executive.

Marokane is a qualified chemical engineer with an MBA and a seasoned executive with over 20 years of senior leadership experience. He will join Eskom no later than 31 March 2024.

He returned to Eskom after he was suspended following an ethical stand he took against state capture, fraud, and corruption.

“He has experience working in distressed organisations with visible and pressurised turnaround mandates,” Eskom said.

“His recent assignment is at Tongaat-Hulett, where he stepped up to lead this financially distressed business when its CEO resigned.”

Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati said Marokane’s appointment followed a rigorous and meticulous recruitment process.

“Dan has in-depth knowledge of the Eskom environment. He leads from the front. He will hit the ground running. That is what Eskom and South Africa need right now,” Nyati said.

Commenting on the appointment, trade union Solidarity urged Marokane to show the integrity necessary to withstand external pressure.

Solidarity supported Marokane among the shortlisted candidates thanks to his experience and familiarity with Eskom.

Theuns du Buisson, an economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute, said Marokane would have to show backbone against political interference, cadres, and cadre deployment.

“We have seen that he was prepared to swim against the tide at Eskom in the past, and he was presumably ousted from there by the servants of state capture,” he said.

“Hopefully, he would be prepared to do what Eskom desperately needs now,” Du Buisson added.

Solidarity provided a list of tasks for Marokane to prioritise when his term as Eskom’s chief executive starts –

• Connect private sector power generation to the grid so the private sector can provide power to the network.
• Complete the unbundling of generation, transmission and distribution within Eskom as a matter of urgency.
• Act decisively against corruption and see that corrupt heads roll so that the focus can be solely on skills when making appointments.

“Solidarity hopes Marokane has the necessary sense of duty to stand firm in the face of the inevitable pressure he will experience from various quarters,” Du Buisson said.