Bloomberg writes that Eskom’s 96-year history is replete with former CEOs who rose from within the debt-laden state-owned power utility to run the company, but there are few obvious choices for the next CEO to come from those same ranks.
Two possible candidates from Eskom’s executive team to replace Phakamani Hadebe have strengths but also weaknesses. CFO Calib Cassim is a chartered accountant who has worked at Eskom for 17 years, yet he has little technical expertise. COO Jan Oberholzer, who has held a range of jobs during a quarter century at the utility, may not have the financial experience to steady its shaky finances. The new CEO will need political clout and connections to navigate Eskom’s complex relationship with the government, which plans to break the utility up into three units. The State has also been reticent to give it the money it says it needs to remain solvent, or the go-ahead to fire excess staff. “Generally when a company is in a mess, you appoint a CEO from outside,” Jannie Rossouw of Wits University’s school of economic and business sciences observed, adding that within Eskom, “the cupboard is fairly bare and their choices are indeed very limited.’’ Rossouw also observed: “Somebody inside a company doesn’t normally have the ability to fix it because you know too many people in the organisation. When you come from the outside you just think numbers.” Eskom’s board still has to advertise the CEO post, which will be vacant from the end of July.
- Eskom insiders provide 'very limited' choices to replace CEO, at Mining Weekly
- Read too, With the appointment of a chief restructuring officer, is the position of Eskom CEO redundant? at Moneyweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page