Cape Town - Deputy President David Mabuza on Thursday said it was up to the Eskom board to act against CEO Andre de Ruyter and his executives after evaluating their performance.
“It is up to the newly-appointed board to re-evaluate the performance of Eskom CEO and other members of Eskom management and, if indeed they find that there is poor performance, I think it is up to the board to act,” Mabuza said.
He was responding to oral questions in the National Council of Provinces from EFF MP Mmabatho Mokause on why De Ruyter had not been removed from office despite failing to ensure that there was reliable and affordable electricity.
Mokause also asked whether Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan had provided the newly-elected board with a clear mandate regarding the level of capability and management experience that was necessary to guarantee Eskom affordable power and reliable generation capacity.
Mabuza said they were pleased that for the first time in a long period, all 13 vacancies on the Eskom board have been filled with a variety of expertise.
“The board will focus on problems with power generation and energy -related issues, fighting fraud and corruption.”
He also said they believed that the board would set clear mechanisms in place to hold the executive accountable.
“It is our expectation that the board is empowered to run the affairs of Eskom in a very diligent manner and adopt zero-tolerance for poor performance, corruption, abuse of power, dishonesty and conflict of interest whenever such arises.
“This includes actions that undermine our efforts to the energy utility to be financially stable and geared towards meeting its developmental imperatives.”
Asked at what stage of the “blackouts” consideration would be taken to bring black executives to Eskom to help end the country’s energy crisis, Mabuza said the government, as a shareholder, appointed the board to administer and oversee operations of the utility.
“We should refrain as the shareholder from interfering in the daily running of the entity. Now that we appointed the board we have done a good job,” he said.
Mabuza said it was up to the board to evaluate the employees at Eskom, including De Ruyter.
“The board will then after evaluation... be in a position to say there is a gap in skills that is in the utility and if a skill is not found in the country, the board escalates it to the shareholder,” he said.
“As much as we see the challenges faced by Eskom, we should allow the board we appointed to turn the affairs of Eskom and not interfere as the government, '' Mabuza added.
Pressed to answer in light of the CEO's lack of performance that filtered to his subordinates, what measures would keep employees accountable when they did reach performance targets, the deputy president said they have given all powers to the newly-appointed board in terms of shareholder's agreement.
“The board should evaluate performance, why there is load shedding, why there are breakages and finally take a decision. If the decision says there is under-performance, they must act in a way to bring confidence and stability to the entity,” Mabuza said.
The deputy president told the MPs they were cognisant of the negative impact load shedding had on the country’s economy and the inconvenience and the hardship it caused.
He outlined several measures being taken to bring more energy into the national grid and the recruitment drive to employ highly competent technicians, engineers and other experts.
“Government has been working with the energy sector to remove a cap on private generators, increasing the number of requests for proposal issues to power stations and contracts for more megawatts from existing IPPs.”
“We remain optimistic, chairperson, that these interventions under the guidance of the new board, will yield positive results and end the current challenge of load shedding,” he added.
Cape Times