BL Premium reports that Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said on Tuesday after announcing the resignation of the state power company’s acting head of generation, Rhulani Mathebula, that there needed to be realistic expectations about the speed at which Eskom’s management would be able to “turn around the ship”.
Mathebula’s abrupt departure comes just six months after his predecessor, Phillip Dukashe, left the company. Oberholzer said turning around the generation business was “extremely demanding”. Addressing the media, he said Mathebula informed the company that the demands of the job had become unbearable and were affecting his health and family. Dukashe, who left the company after 26 years, cited “the critical need to achieve a balance for the benefit of his health, family and work responsibilities”, in his resignation letter. Eskom has now suffered at least five high-level resignations in 2022 while battling to improve the performance of its generation fleet during SA’s worst year of load-shedding to date. Oberholzer emphasised the need for “better understanding” of the situation Eskom was faced with. The challenge of “finding a lasting group executive” for generation was made worse by the constant criticism Eskom’s executives were subjected to, he said. Lethabo power station manager Thomas Conradie has been appointed acting head of generation. Riedewaan Bakardien, the chief nuclear officer at Koeberg, resigned in July. Koeberg also lost its acting GM, Nomawethu Mtwebana, earlier in 2022. Mandy Rambharos, the group’s head of energy transition, left at the end of October.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Denene Erasmus at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- See too, Eskom's acting head of generation quits, at Fin24
- En ook, Eskom se opwekkingshoof bedank, by Maroela Media
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