2024-03-02 14:39:38
Dan Marokane tackles the toughest task in South Africa: turning the lights back on. As CEO of national power company Eskom, he took charge on Friday (March 1) of an organization hobbled by allegations of coal theft and sabotage and facing financial and technical crises. He will work with a government shareholder who has a contradictory vision of the country’s future energy mix and who is struggling to move forward with a major overhaul of its electricity supply sector.
As South Africa heads towards national elections in May, turning around Eskom and resolving a lingering power crisis might save Africa’s most industrialized economy from a cycle of decline, the chairman of the board of directors said. Eskom administration to Reuters. Failure would mean the country would be stuck in business as usual, with crippling power outages from homes and businesses to traffic lights and hospitals. And this can reach 10 hours a day.
Dan Marokane moved to Tongaat Hulett
Marokane previously served as Eskom’s top executive for five years, until 2015. He returns following a stint at Tongaat Hulett, where he attempted to save the sugar company following an accounting scandal that ultimately placed it under protection of the bankruptcy law. With his return to Eskom, he takes charge of a struggling company dependent on government bailouts and facing plans to split it into separate generation, transmission and distribution businesses, a process that is bogged down in bureaucracy and red tape. He will have to fight daily to keep the fleet of aging power plants operating while alleviating the concerns of donors who have pledged billions of dollars to wean South Africa off coal, which produces regarding 80% of its electricity.
Eskom’s top job has become a revolving door through which more than a dozen CEOs have passed over the past 15 years, in permanent or acting roles.
Par WritingEditorial Committee
1709398031
#Dan #Marokane #save #Eskom
