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“Who’s my boss?”
That should have been the first, and most important, question the five candidates for Eskom CEO should have asked the panel interviewing them over the past few months. This is especially the case after the appointment of Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as the country’s electricity minister in February as part of the president’s big, or rather not-so-big, cabinet reshuffle.
While, in practice, the board is the incoming CEO’s boss, we know that they will have to answer to not only Pravin Gordhan, as the public enterprises minister, but Gwede Mantashe as the mineral resources and energy minister and, of course, Ramokgopa. One can also never discount the very real prospect of a call from the presidency whenever the country hits another heightened stage of load-shedding.
Yes, this is a highly politicised role, given its centrality to the economy and next year’s elections, where the ANC is facing the very real prospect of having to get into bed with one of the opposition parties to stay in power. It’s a job that will have three ministers calling at odd hours, a board chairman and the president. It is what it is.
A thick skin, a security lock on their lunch tin and strict adherence to governance will best protect the winning candidate — anything else would only serve to weaken their position — especially if the politics of the country change next year, which looks ever more likely. Turning around Eskom is an operational job and I suspect that policy statements on the future energy mix will only get the prospective CEO into a deep layer of trouble. Leave that to the chairperson, Mpho Makwana.
It’s the operations that matter and that is where the work of the CEO should be focused. There are seasons for chief executives — they are brought in either to dream up a new vision for a company, keep the status quo (a CEO-sanctioned successor) or to drive an urgent operational turnaround. When I look at the Eskom equation, it’s the latter — and that means moving the head office to the most troubled of Eskom’s operations — Tutuka power station in Standerton, Mpumalanga.
That’s where you inspire a turnaround, I think. Sitting in Megawatt Park hasn’t quite seemed the position from which to spark the revolution that’s so needed at Eskom. But, I suppose, for all the previous incumbents and their executives, Sunninghill, just a few kilometres from Sandton, was preferable to Standerton.
They’ve got to get the respect of the more than 32 000 Eskom employees, who will either make or break their tenure. Let the ministers wear the suits for the GCIS media pictures when they visit operations. As the new CEO, you wear the Eskom uniform.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.
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