Marokane ‘will hit the ground running’ as Eskom CEO

It’s official: Dan Marokane will take over the Eskom hot-seat as group CEO – the toughest executive job at a state-owned enterprise (SOE) – in the first quarter of 2024.

And a confident Eskom chair Mteto Nyati says Marokane “will hit the ground running. That is what Eskom and South Africa need right now”.

The move was confirmed by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and Eskom on Friday afternoon, a day after news agency Bloomberg broke the news that 50-something Marokane is set to be appointed CEO of the embattled state power utility.

“Marokane is a qualified chemical engineer who has an MBA [UCT] and a seasoned executive with more than 20 years senior leadership experience. He will join Eskom no later than 31 March 2024,” the SOE said.

“He has experience working in distressed organisations with visible and pressurised turnaround mandates. His recent assignment is at Tongaat Hulett where he stepped up to lead this financially distressed business when its CEO [Gavin Hudson] resigned.

“Marokane returns to Eskom after he and three other senior executives were suspended following an ethical stand they took against state capture, fraud and corruption,” Eskom added.

Nyati, who came into the Eskom chair position recently following the resignation of former chairperson Mpho Makwana, said the appointment of Marokane follows a long, rigorous and meticulous recruitment process.

“The Eskom board embarked on a global search for a suitable candidate with the necessary leadership, experience and business orientation with a solid track record in the energy sector. Dan has experience in managing complex strategic, operational and commercial turnaround across the private and public sectors,” he added.

“He also has in-depth knowledge of the Eskom environment. He leads from the front,” Nyati noted.

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Marokane left Eskom in 2015 after the suspension fallout, with little mention at the time by Eskom itself around the state capture as this was in the midst of the Jacob Zuma presidency and Brian Molefe’s tenure as Eskom boss.

At the time of his Eskom exit, Marokane was head of group capital.

Tongaat years

Marokane later joined the accounting-scandal-hit, JSE-listed sugar and property group Tongaat Hulett as an executive in January 2018. Marokane was part of the leadership team – together with Hudson as CEO (from 2019) and Rob Aitken as CFO (from 2018) – tasked with turning around the besieged Durban-based company.

But, following multiple whammies – including the Covid-19 fallout, KZN riots, and devasting KZN floods – debt-laden Tongaat was forced to go into business rescue in October last year.

After Hudson resigned as CEO in January this year, Marokane was appointed acting Tongaat Hulett CEO in February. However, with the group still under a business rescue process, the business rescue practitioners are effectively in charge of the sugar group.

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Former Tongaat executives as well as SA business leaders told Moneyweb on Thursday that Marokane could be the right man for the Eskom top job and is a worthy appointment, but they did not want to be named as the official announcement was yet to be made.

“It is an honour to be chosen to lead Eskom at this critical juncture in its history,” Marokane said on Friday in Eskom’s media announcement.

“I look forward to working with the leadership team, Eskom board, the shareholder [government], and other key stakeholders to accelerate implementation of the Generation Recovery Plan, the creation of transmission capacity as well as other critical Eskom priorities and chart a path to a sustainable future for Eskom,” he added.

Drawn out process 

The drawn-out process to appoint a permanent Eskom CEO follows Andre De Ruyter’s resignation last December. He was meant to stay on till March 2023, but left earlier (in February) after revelations and allegations made in his book and in a Etv interview about continued corruption at Eskom linked to the ANC.

Marokane, whose name first came up as a possible candidate for the Eskom CEO role in April, in effect will come in a year after De Ruyter’s departure. Notably, Marokane was backed for the position back in May by labour union Solidarity.

The 2023 year will go down as SA’s worst in terms of load-shedding, with rolling blackouts knocking the economy hard. Eskom’s leadership vacuum and woes did not help matters.

Apparent interference by DPE minister Pravin Gordhan and government delayed the recruitment process, which led to further leadership challenges at Eskom with the resignation of Makwana.

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The government and the business sector will be hoping that confirmation of Marokane’s appointment will bring some leadership certainty to the utility in the 2024 election year.

“We are delighted to have him on board and are confident that he, the executive committee and the board will work well together in rebuilding an Eskom of tomorrow that is anchored on high-performance culture,” said Nyati.

“The shareholder has been an integral part of the recruitment process. To ensure compliance with Eskom’s Memorandum of Incorporation, the shareholder had to ask the Eskom board to go back to the drawing board until it found three appointable candidates. Eskom thanks the Minister of Public Enterprises for his counsel, and for placing the appointment of the group CEO top of the agenda,” Eskom’s statement noted.