Fin24 reports that Eskom on Sunday published a quarter-page advertisement for a new group chief executive following the resignation of current boss André de Ruyter in mid-December last year.
It indicated that "a leader with unquestionable integrity and ethics" with a track record of "turning around commercially and operationally challenged organisations" was needed to take the helm at SA's embattled state-owned power utility. The deadline for applications is 27 February. De Ruyter assumed his position on Christmas Day in 2019 and was the utility's 11th CEO since 2007, when load shedding was first implemented. "The job of Eskom group chief executive in its current configuration is impossible. There is a lack of support and when this became clear to me, it became fundamentally untenable (to continue) given the repeated attacks on me and Eskom’s strategy by senior members of government," De Ruyter commented after he resigned. This followed a barrage of public attacks on him led by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan's and President Cyril Ramaphosa's subsequent failure to publicly support him and his management. De Ruyter's more than three years at Eskom have been marked by death threats, sabotage, relentless accusations and investigations, the Covid-19 pandemic, and a major lack of urgency from government to heed calls for additional capacity. According to the job ad, Eskom employs 40,421 people and has annual revenues of R246.5 billion. It also has debts of just under R400 billion.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Riaan Grobler at Fin24
- Read too, Eskom publishes ad for toughest job in the country, at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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