South Africa’s state power utility appointed an interim chief executive, two days after the early departure of its former boss and as the company struggles to reduce record outages.
(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s state power utility appointed an interim chief executive, two days after the early departure of its former boss and as the company struggles to reduce record outages.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. appointed Chief Financial Officer Calib Cassim as interim CEO with immediate effect, it said in a statement on Friday. He will lead the company until further notice, it said.
Cassim replaces Andre de Ruyter, who left on Wednesday after accusing state officials of theft and corruption that he said is costing the debt-stricken utility 1 billion rand ($55 million) a month. South Africa is grappling with power cuts of as long as 12 hours a day while Eskom struggles to manage frequent breakdowns of its aging and poorly maintained coal-fired power plants that produce almost all of the nation’s electricity.
Read: Eskom CEO Quits a Month Early After Censuring South Africa’s ANC
Cassim was made interim CFO in 2017 and permanently appointed to the role the following year. He’s been at Eskom for two decades and has a “deep understanding and appreciation of the Eskom business and the electricity industry, especially regarding the challenges facing the financing of operations and future expansion of the industry,” the company said.
The appointment fails to address criticism previously leveled at De Ruyter, who holds a law degree, for not having an engineering background. Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said in a July interview with the Johannesburg-based Mail & Guardian newspaper that technical skills were needed for the job.
Cassim is a registered chartered accountant with a master’s degree in business leadership.
Eskom has implemented power cuts for 117 consecutive days because of plant outages, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the company had said Feb. 19 it expected to ease blackouts by the end of this week, instead it’s intensified them, cutting an unprecedented 7,000 megawatts from the grid on Feb. 21 because of more breakdowns at its generating fleet.
De Ruyter resigned in December and had been scheduled to leave the company on March 31. Eskom Chairman Mpho Makwana said the former CEO behaved “reprehensibly” when he made the accusations of theft and corruption.
(Updates with comment by Eskom chairman in final paragraph.)
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