Can Ngubane turn Eskom’s fortune around?

Johannesburg -

Can the old campaigner Ben Ngubane perform magic in his new role as acting chairman of Eskom?

The probable answer is nobody knows, least of all the man who has put him in the lion’s den, his old one-time political adversary and now close ally, Jacob Zuma.

Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona recently described the power system as “vulnerable, tight and like driving a car which has not been maintained and has exhausted itself. In so doing it has become an embarrassment”.

Add to that Eskom’s failure to maintain its generation infrastructure, unreliable, ageing equipment, too many people demanding too little electricity and the problems appear insurmountable.

The good news is that the first power produced from Medupi’s unit six has come on line, but this is still a small step in the greater power output that South Africa needs to maintain growth and financial stability.

So what is Ngubane’s role in all this public angst and turmoil?

Eskom’s recently dethroned chairman Zola Tsotsi believed he needed to play a leading role in designing, guiding measuring and enabling the changes needed. But somehow he got his brief horribly wrong and was summarily fired.

What is clear is that the chairman’s responsibilities at Eskom must be closely aligned with the policies of the Department of Public Enterprises and presumably with the country as a whole. There is more. Ngubane might also have to work with a brand new Eskom board.

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown says she is working on replacing the current members.

No wonder then, that many commentators are asking if the man chosen for the job has been handed a poisoned chalice or at best a glass of sour milk.

In a contemporary sense the 74-year-old political campaigner, born and bred on the outskirts of Durban, schooled in Mariannhill and trained as a doctor at UKZN, has had a chequered political career with as many ups as downs.

In the early days spats with fellow leaders led to his demise as KZN premier. Formerly a member of the IFP, Ngubane resigned to join the ANC in 2006.

In recent years he’s been tasked with babysitting the country’s troubled parastatals, not always with success.

His controversial unilateral decision-making as chairman of the SABC board landed him in hot water and resulted in a vote of no confidence.

His second stint on the SABC board was even more disastrous.

After months of conflict with board members over Ngubane’s reinstatement of the SABC’s questionable chief operations officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the board faced imminent collapse and was dissolved by Zuma.

However, he did have better luck in 2010 with the Land Bank, which had a turn-around during his chairmanship.

As one political commentator put it: “This Eskom appointment is the biggest gamble of the lot. If it doesn’t work, God help us.”

Turning Eskom’s fortunes around is as much a gamble for Ngubane as it is for Zuma, whose mostly silent inner circle is known to be losing patience with its leader’s choices of people for top positions and the fallout that inevitably seems to follow.

While Zuma and Ngubane are both home-grown KZN political warriors, they have had spats in the past.

The gloves came off when in an address to the SA Institute of Race Relations in 1998 Ngubane warned that the passing of the Employment Equity Bill would bring about an entirely new system of what he called “bureaucratic meddling” in the affairs of private business.

In a fit of pique the ANC local government under Zuma thereafter described him as a “desperado” and the number one enemy of transformation, black empowerment and democracy.

Have feelings changed – or is Zuma’s appointment of his old adversary simply a last ditch stand to avoid a complete blackout of the country’s electricity grid?

Observers are already asking if Eskom is so far down the tubes, that even one notch up from complete disaster would offer a glimmer of hope.

The unfolding Eskom drama of the last few days, which has seen beleaguered Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi vacating the hot seat, and the new incumbent already entering centre stage, is far from over.

There is little chance Big Ben knows how the lights work. There is little chance he will shed much light on the myriad complex interventions required to stem the risk of a stage 3 shutdown.

Sunday Argus