Eskom acting CEO Calib Cassim during a tour at Kusile Power Station in Witbank on 11 September 2023. Picture: Gallo Images/Daily Maverick/Felix Dlangamandla
Eskom chief financial officer (CFO) Calib Cassim will remain in his position as the power utility continues to implement its turnaround plan.
In a statement on Thursday, Eskom confirmed that Cassim’s current term of employment as CFO was set to expire at the end of December.
Cassim, who is currently acting as Eskom’s chief executive officer (CEO), will return to the CFO position immediately when Dan Marokane assumes his new role on 31 March 2024.
Marokane’s appointment, which was announced last week, comes months after the resignation of former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter.
Eskom board chairperson Mteto Nyati said the retention of Cassim “boded well” for continuity and change approach that was expected from the power utility’s leadership team.
“Cassim has 21 years of service with Eskom. His institutional knowledge will be invaluable in discussions around Eskom’s current and future business strategies,” he said.
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“Calib has done an excellent job in holding the fort. When we announced the appointment of Mr Dan Marokane to the top 400 senior leaders of Eskom, they gave us two key messages.
“Firstly, they were delighted that Dan had chosen to re-join Eskom. His appointment was well received. Secondly, they expressed a deep sense of appreciation to Calib for serving the company well.
“His interim leadership brought sustainability to the organisation. As the Eskom Board, we are counting on his passion for Eskom and are pleased to have retained him as CFO,” Nyati added.
Cassim’s announcement comes hot on the heels of the release of its EskomSePush’s “load shedding wrapped” this week.
The popular app released a year-end report in resemblance of Spotify Wrapped, providing a breakdown of different load shedding statistics in 2023.
According to EskomSePush, load shedding was in place 82% of the time in 2023.
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The statistics show that South Africa spent most number of days in stage 4 load shedding.
Load shedding was in place for more than 400 000 minutes in 2023, which is 86% more than any other year.
May had the most intense load shedding of any month and December, so far, was the least intense.
Eskom released its interim results, with its financial statement indicating that the power utility recorded a net profit of R1.6 billion.
Revenue also grew to R158.6 billion, a 9.5% increase from the R144.8 billion in September 2022, due to the high tariff increase for the 2023/2024 financial year.
However, sales volumes declined due to, among others, supply constraints, theft of electricity through illegal connections and meter tampering.
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Eskom warned that despite making a profit in the first six months, it expects a net loss of R23.2 billion at the end its financial year in March.
This was due to the continued poor generating plant performance, lack of cost-reflective tariffs, high debt service costs and non-payment by customers.
Meanwhile, Eskom further stated that its debt remains unsustainably high – including municipal debt, which has increased to R70 billion.
*Additional reporting by Vhahangwele Nemakonde
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