Fin24 reports that Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) Minister Gwede Mantashe has repeated an analogy he used to describe the exodus of Transnet executives, by saying Mpho Makwana's resignation as Eskom chair reminded him of mice fleeing methane underground.

"If you are underground and see mice running … you just follow them. Because when they run, half the time, they are smelling methane. To save yourself, you just follow them," he said on Tuesday at a press briefing at Africa Oil Week in Cape Town. He went on to say: "When there is an exodus of executives at institutions, there should be a kind of methane we investigate. It is concerning to have a number of executives running like mice, running from methane in a short space of time … what is the methane they are running from?" Mantashe could not be drawn on what the "methane" was, but pointed out that people were not leaving the DMRE’s portfolio of companies. "It is in other portfolios that there is this methane… and we must understand that methane. I don't understand it … it has developed over the last week. When the Cabinet meets, they will talk about it," he stated. Transnet's CEO Portia Derby and Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siza Mzimela both recently resigned in the space of a week. Both Transnet and Eskom fall under Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan's portfolio. The relationship between Gordhan and Makwana reportedly deteriorated sharply in recent months. Among the disagreements between the two was the selection of a new CEO for Eskom.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lameez Omarjee at Fin24
• Read too, What are Eskom execs running from, Gwede Mantashe asks, at BusinessLive

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