Parliamentary committee hopes Marokane will stabilise Eskom

The Parliamentary committee that oversees state-owned entities has welcomed the appointment of the new Eskom CEO saying this ends months of speculation of who was going to take over.

Chairperson of the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on public enterprises Khaya Magaxa said they hope Dan Marokane will be able to pull Eskom out of its crisis.

He said the committee plans to meet with Eskom early next year and to understand what are the plans for the new CEO.

Magaxa said former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter was not able to rescue the entity.

Eskom was in deep financial crisis after it posted another loss of R23.9 billion in the last financial year. This follows another loss of R11.9bn in the previous financial year.

Parliament this week passed the Eskom Debt Relief Amendment Bill, which is a bailout of R254 billion that was announced in the budget.

“This Bill seeks to amend the Eskom Debt Relief Act of 2023, to provide for payment of interest by Eskom on amounts advanced as a loan. Prior to the current amendment, the 2023 Eskom Debt Relief Act provided for interest-free loans to the power utility. Now, the Minister of Finance can set the rate of interest and should the power utility not comply with the conditions set, the minister can reduce the amounts paid to Eskom,” said Parliament.

Magaxa said they hope Marokane was one of three candidates that had been shortlisted for the job.

However, his appointment comes at the right time as he was involved with Eskom before and has full understanding of the operations.

“This is a good step forward. We appreciate that this process has been finalised. We are happy since this is a person that is familiar with the environment,” said Magaxa.

He added that this will bring some level of stability at Eskom. The committee will now be able to deal with a permanent CEO instead of a person who is acting in the position.