Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan is adept at playing politics.
It is a pity that key institutions suffer as he does so.
The announcement of Dan Marokane as Eskom CEO is a case in point. The former Tongaat Hulett frontman will take up the post left vacant by André de Ruyter in February.
Marokane was initially proposed as Eskom CEO to Gordhan six months ago by former Eskom board chair Mpho Makwana. Gordhan and Makwana were said to be at odds over a number of issues, and the minister by all accounts wanted him out. He therefore rejected Marokane’s nomination and sent the board back to the drawing board, saying it had flouted processes and was meant to provide him with three options.
Makwana subsequently resigned and Gordhan replaced him with former MTN CEO Mteto Nyati.
Marokane’s name was among the three options provided to Gordhan by Nyati’s board too and, lo and behold, he was appointed. Gordhan, his critics will say, used the appointment of the Eskom CEO to step up his move to oust Makwana as chair; insiders at the time said the minister felt Makwana wasn’t cutting it, even though he’d only been at Eskom for 13 months.
The ANC’s penchant for playing chicken with the leadership of the state institutions most critical to driving economic growth is a sign that the party occupies its own world and is almost completely unhinged from the dire reality the rest of the country faces. What more could indicate this than minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s desperate attempt to spin a positive economic story in the face of yet another decline in GDP growth — she said the economy is “resilient” and South Africa is “rising” — or Gordhan playing politics with the leadership of Eskom?
It’s simply a six-month delay in getting a leader for the most important organisation in the country.
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