Fin24 reports that according to Eskom director Mteto Nyati, the power utility’s board plans to scrap the position of chief operating officer (COO). Jan Oberholzer was appointed as the utility's first COO in 2018. He retires in April.

The board has decided to cancel the position, given that Eskom will be unbundled into three divisions (generation, transmission and distribution). "This phenomenon of COO is (also) something that is new in Eskom," Nyati pointed out. Following CEO André de Ruyter's resignation in December, a company appointed to find a replacement will apparently present a long list of candidates to the board's nomination committee within the next two weeks. A short list will then be compiled. In response to pronouncements by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula that the ruling party wanted to end load shedding by the end of 2023 by reprioritising the national budget and declaring a national state of disaster, Nyati said the board was sticking to a two-year plan. Last month, the new Eskom board confirmed a plan that aimed to improve the Eskom coal fleet's Energy Availability Factor (EAF) to a "desirable level" in two years. According to Nyati, the Eskom board has not been pressured by government to change its plan. "We are open to any ideas … that will help us to move us the timeline to earlier. [But] at this time, we have a clear plan … [and] that is a two-year plan," he indicated.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Helena Wasserman & Lameez Omarjee at Fin24

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