Eskom on Thursday announced four new executive appointments to strengthen its executive team and prepare for a competitive marketplace.
They are: Portia Mngomezulu as group executive of corporate services; Nontokozo Hadebe as group executive: strategy and sustainability; Roman Crookes as group executive of group capital and chief Information and Len de Villiers as Chief Information and Technology Officer.
The appointments are effective from November 1.
Eskom group chief executive (GCE) Dan Marokane announced the first four of seven new executive appointments to further address the current business challenges and future-proof the organisation through the delivery of strategic initiatives to enable growth and long-term sustainability.
In a statement it said Eskom is aligning its executive execution capability and capacity to focus its skilled people in the best structure where they can deliver value the fastest.
Marokane said, “Eskom recognised that it needed to bring in some new skills at the executive level to guide its teams in the business so it can execute strategic initiatives in a competitive market faster, more efficiently, and in areas which are new to the utility. In just five months, we have closed critical positions at Eskom. I have been impressed with the volume and calibre of applicants who were willing to be associated with our brand. Our new executives had a choice of who they could work for. They chose Eskom.
“We must now more than ever remain focused on delivery and changing the way we do things, not how we are structured, to the benefit of our customers who will increasingly have a choice of energy provider as the market reforms take place. It is our intention to remain a critical player in South Africa’s evolving future energy market, and we will move at pace to recover lost ground,” said Marokane.
New executive team profile:
Portia Mngomezulu: Mngomezulu is an accomplished corporate services executive with over 28 years of experience, including more than a decade in senior leadership roles within the public sector.She will focus on streamlining controls and capacitating the unbundled Eskom entities, leading to an efficient corporate support service.
Nontokozo Hadebe: Hadebe is a seasoned strategy executive with 23 years of experience in strategy development, corporate planning, performance management and strategic initiatives management. Her expertise lies in long-term organisational strategy development and implementation plans. She has successfully led and contributed to several transformational strategies and organisational development initiatives. Eskom said she will progress work in the areas of adapting Eskom’s strategy and aligning its research and development focus to solve Eskom’s current and future sustainability challenges and options.
Roman Crookes: He brings over 23 years of experience in the power industry. Most recently, he successfully completed the construction and commissioning of the GNPD Power Plant, comprising two critical 725MW units, in the Philippines. He will refocus the business on driving efficiency in capital projects execution and capacitating the unbundled entities appropriately.
Len de Villiers: He is appointed on a three-year contract. De Villiers has over 40 years of experience in the Information Technology industry and is considered one of the top chief information officers in South Africa. He has extensive experience in the financial services industry and complex technology change projects and is expected to assist Eskom's business in embracing the pace of digitalisation, the use of artificial intelligence, and increased levels in areas of cybersecurity.
Earlier on Thursday, chairperson of Eskom Dr Mteto Nyati said leadership matters while delivering the keynote address at the Serious Social Investing Conference in Johannesburg.
He says this was achieved by leveraging original equipment manufacturers, people and processes, an improvement which has led to a diesel spend reduction of over R2 billion. Once Eskom achieves an EAF of 70%, there will be no more loadshedding, an achievement he expects will be reached by March next year.
Earlier this week Energy and Electricity Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has attributed to robust leadership at Eskom and the dedication of its employees the achieving more than 200 days of no load shedding, which has marked a turning point in energy reliability.
Outlook
In June, Eskom announced that over the next 36 months, it will pursue its strategy across a number of key initiatives to deliver value. These include:
– Increasing the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) to 70% in the next 12 to 36 months.
– Returning more than 2.5GW in capacity to the grid by March 2025 and developing an executable initial pipeline of at least 2GW of clean energy projects by 2026.
– Re-baselining the cost trajectory and improving efficiencies.
– Advocating and pursuing a sustainable solution for municipality debt.
– Delivering the unbundling of the Distribution and Generation divisions.
– Accelerating the implementation of initiatives to enable a Just Energy Transition.
Eskom said it will continue to focus on implementing its generation recovery plan, strengthening governance, and tackling crime and corruption, while future-proofing the organization to enable energy security, growth, and long-term sustainability to the benefit of South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
BUSINESS REPORT