Ramaphosa throws weight behind new Eskom board

President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his support for the newly-appointed Eskom board, which has been tasked with addressing the current load shedding.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan unveiled the new board last week. The new board chairperson is Mpho Makwana, while other members include Dr Busisiwe Vilakazi, Lwazi Goqwana, Clive le Roux, Leslie Mkhabela and MTN boss Mteto Nyati.

South Africans have had to put up with endless bouts of load shedding since the start of the month due to several factors, including the loss of generation capacity at Eskom’s power stations. Rod Crompton, who served on the previous board will retain his post, while CEO Andre De Ruyter and CFO Calib Cassim will be the utility’s executive directors.

RAMAPHOSA GOVT WILL ASSIST NEW ESKOM BOARD

President Cyril Ramaphosa says government will continue engaging the Eskom board and ensure it has the necessary resources to keep the lights on and make load shedding a thing of the past.

“So we have a great deal of confidence in that board, they now have the responsibility to lead Eskom forward, and of course from our side as government, we will continue to engage with Eskom, because our key focus is to ensure that our load-shedding come to an end. We will support the board, we will give them various resources that they need to make sure that energy is restored to the level that South Africans expect,” Ramaphosa said.

“The Minister would like the incoming board to deal with immediate current load shedding issues, procurement, elimination of corruption and ensuring that there is reliability of energy supply in the medium to long term. The Minister would like to thank the previous board members for their work and wishes the new Board well during their tenure,” said the Public Enterprises Ministry.

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