‘We will give them resources’: Ramaphosa hails new ‘wholesome’ Eskom board

President Cyril Ramaphosa has backed the new board members of Eskom to help tackle load shedding and other challenges the power utility is facing.

Speaking to the media in Kimberley, Northern Cape, during the ANC’s Letsema campaign on Saturday, Ramaphosa said he hailed the new Eskom board of “capable individuals”.

“It’s a diverse mixture of experience [and] expertise. This is a wonderful, wholesome board. The mandate they have is to make Eskom work and they will evaluate everything from the executives right through to the manner in which Eskom has been functioning or should function.

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“So we have a great deal of confidence in that board. They have the responsibility to lead Eskom forward,” he said.

The president also pointed that government would continue to be engaged with Eskom in order to address the problems at the power utility.

“The key focus is to ensure that the load shedding that our country is going through does come to an end and we will support the new board.

“We will give them various resources that they need to make sure that energy is restored to the level that all South Africans expect. Let us wish them well in the difficult task that they have,” Ramaphosa continued.

The Eskom board was announced on Friday by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, a few days after it was reported by there would be changes.

It will be chaired by Mpho Makwana, who is no stranger to Eskom, having previously first served as a Non-Executive Director of the state-owned entity between 2002 and 2011.

Former Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general-secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali, was also appointed to the board.

The new 13-member board assumed its role on Saturday.

Duties

During Friday’s media briefing, Gordhan said the board must deal with the current load shedding issues, procurement, elimination of corruption and ensuring that there was reliable energy supply in the medium to long-term.

The board will account to the Department of Public Enterprises, which is the shareholder of Eskom.

One of its key roles is to get the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) above 70%, which is currently below 60%.

While it has urged Ramaphosa to sack Gordhan, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has also called for the restructuring of the Eskom executive.

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“There is enough evidence that the current leadership under Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has failed in its primary responsibility of keeping the lights on. NUM is of the view that Eskom must be put under the responsibility of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and not Public Enterprises,” the union said on Wednesday.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have also called for Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter, and COO, Jan Oberholzer to be fired with immediate effect as South Africa battles intense blackouts.

The country is currently on Stage 3 load shedding, with Gordhan insisting that the blackouts would continue for another 9 to 12 months.

Last month, Eskom launched three power purchase programmes that will see it procuring 1 000 megawatts (MW) of power for the national grid on an expedited basis.

Additional reporting by Faizel Patel