Eskom turns to private sector to tackle skills crisis

Eskom’s lack of skilled and experienced workers has led to underperforming power stations and catastrophic issues that could have been prevented.

This was shared by Rudi Dicks, the head of the project management in the office of the Presidency, on Investec’s The Current podcast. 

Dicks explained that while Eskom has a motivated team of engineers at many power stations, experience is crucial. 

Even if you’re a trained engineer, it’s the years of hands-on experience and mentorship that truly matter. 

Having someone with 15 to 20 years of experience at a power station can make a big difference in solving problems effectively, he said. 

Eskom’s skills gap was also highlighted by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa earlier this year. 

He said that one of Eskom’s largest power stations, Kendal, was significantly underperforming, largely due to a haemorrhaging of skills at the power utility.

Kendal was identified as one of six grossly underperforming priority stations.

He told Newzroom Afrika that the power station is performing at 36%, significantly lower than the 55% target for the current financial year.

“It is nowhere close to where we want to be. By their own admission, I think we can do better,” he said.

He added that he has met with the power station’s employees to better understand its challenges.

“These are issues that are undermining Kendal’s ability to go back to its glory days. It was one of the best-performing power stations. The level of deterioration is catastrophic,” he said.

Ramokgopa said the station’s employees and management identified a lack of skills as one of its biggest challenges.

“There’s been a significant haemorrhaging of skills. I think some of the most skilled and seasoned people have left the power station,” he said.

Ramokgopa had also previously told eNCA that there is a stigma that everyone who works at Eskom is corrupt or incompetent, making it less prestigious to be associated with the company and affecting how people perceive employees in public. 

As a result, Eskom has lost many skilled engineers and technicians over the last few years – the very people needed to help fix issues like load-shedding. 

Similar findings were made by German consultancy group VGBE Energy, which the National Treasury commissioned to analyse the performance of Eskom’s coal-fired power plants. 

They gave several reasons for Eskom’s decline, including the utility’s complex management system, low staff morale, general incompetence and lack of ability to implement theoretical knowledge in practice.

“The competencies of the technical managers seem to be at a reasonable level, but there is greater potential for improvement,” the report read. 

It explained that, in general, leadership competencies are not at the level they should be.

“In the past, suitable leadership development programmes existed, and these need to be re-established,” the report explained.  

“We repeatedly noticed that there is a high degree of theoretical knowledge. However, the complex management system makes its application very difficult.” 

“The management system with its governance, structure and processes is dysfunctional and too complex.”

To address these issues, Dicks explained that Eskom needs to focus on both training new engineers and bringing in experienced professionals from outside to help manage critical power stations. 

He pointed out that a strong partnership between Eskom and the private sector, initiated by the President through the Business for South Africa collaboration, is already underway. 

This partnership involves redeploying experienced engineers who have either left Eskom or have a deep understanding of power station operations. 

These experts are being sent back to six key power stations to help improve their reliability and increase the output of dependable megawatts. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa reaffirmed this partnership earlier this month. It aims to stimulate economic growth and job creation by addressing constraints on growth in energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption. 

“Since the start of the partnership just over a year ago, we have made substantial progress towards stabilising the energy sector, improving the performance of our rail and port system, and strengthening the fight against crime and corruption,” Ramaphosa said.