Mteto Nyati to be appointed as chair of Eskom board

Pravin Gordhan, the minister of public enterprises minister has made an announcement that the current chairman of the state-owned electricity utility, Mpho Makwana will be stepping down from the Eskom board at the end of October.

Set to take the reins from his is the former CEO of Altron and MTN South Africa, Mteto Nyati. Nyati recently resigned from the Telkom and Nedbank boards, citing pressure on his time. In a statement, the public enterprises department said Mr Makwana will utilise the remainder of October to hand over to the new interim chairperson of the board, but did not say why Makwana was leaving.

Makwana said in the same statement: “I thank the minister for the positive [and] amicable manner upon which we conclude my tenure,”

Gordhan thanked Makwana for his contribution “during the most difficult time for Eskom. Our efforts to stabilise Eskom and restructure it into three subsidiaries — generation, transmission and distribution — remain on track,” said Gordhan.

Gordhan also added by saying that as government, they are committed to ensuring that Eskom has the right skills, talent and experience to support their pursuit of a more secure energy future for South Africans.

The changes and the departure of Makwana follows tensions between Gordhan and the Eskom board over the appointment of a new CEO to replace André de Ruyter. Gordhan has promised that a permanent CEO will be appointed by the end of this year.

The department of public enterprises previously issued a statement that Nyati would be appointed as Eskom chairman on an interim basis. It later issued a second statement in which it clarified that Nyati’s appointment was not interim in nature.