Jabu Mabuza

Embattled state power utility Eskom will be temporarily led by Jabu Mabuza, its chairman, who will take over the roles of interim executive chairman and acting CEO starting from next month.

The interim appointment comes after Phakamani Hadebe announced that he would step down as CEO at the end of July because his health was suffering due to the demands of the job.

Eskom’s board will identify a suitable candidate to take up the permanent CEO role within three months, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said in a statement on Monday.

The government and Eskom have been under pressure to install executives at Eskom who are capable of transforming the loss-making utility from an almost century-old monopoly that generates about 95% of the nation’s electricity, to an efficient and sustainable business that’s split into three separate divisions.

The utility began advertising the CEO position last week and applications are due to close on 2 August.  — Reported by Paul Burkhardt, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP