Fin24 reports that Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan announced on Monday that Eskom chairperson Mpho Makwana had resigned. In a short statement, Gordhan said that Makwana would step down at the Eskom AGM scheduled for the end of October.

He was appointed only a year ago and is the shortest-serving Eskom chairperson to date. Non-executive director Mteto Nyati will be appointed chairperson of the board. An earlier statement referred to Nyati as the new interim chair, but this was subsequently corrected. Nyati, who previously was a CEO of Altron and of MTN South Africa, stepped down from the board of Nedbank last week due to "increased capacity constraints". While Gordhan did not provide the reason for Makwana's sudden departure, Makwana indicated in the statement that the matter had been "amicably settled". Gordhan added that the work to restructure Eskom and appoint new leadership was ongoing. The relationship between Gordhan and Makwana deteriorated sharply in recent months. Among the disagreements between the two had been the selection of a new CEO for Eskom. The impasse between the two had not been solved at the time of the announcement. A board member revealed last week said that the relationship between Gordhan and Makwana had broken down and that trust between Gordhan and several of the board members had collapsed following the CEO appointment debacle.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Carol Paton at Fin24
• Read too, Eskom chair resigns as leadership crisis deepens, at Moneyweb

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