Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
Electricity pylons are seen in front of the cooling towers at the Lethabo Thermal Power Station,an Eskom coal-burning power station near Sasolburg in the northern Free State province, March 2, 2016.
Johnny Dladla is Eskom's new acting CEO, and he is relatively unknown -- which is a good thing in the embattled parastatal plagued by allegations of fraud, corruption and mismanagement.
A quick online news search of "Johnny Dladla" reveals no wrongdoings exposed in the media.
Could a long-serving, controversy-free CEO be exactly what Eskom needs?
Here is what you need to know about Dladla:
- He has been in Eskom for 22 years, 17 of which was spent in "various non-regulated businesses", and five more as CEO of Eskom Enterprises and its subsidiaries.
- Dladla also worked at BHP Billiton and South African Breweries.
- A chartered marketer, he has studied across a range of fields including finance and accounting at institutions such as Harvard Business School, Fort Hare University, Cranfield University (UK), AAA School of Advertising and IMM.
- Eskom's annual general meeting is currently underway, and it is expected that some board members may come under the axe. Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown expressed her displeasure with the board's conduct in court papers last week and her spokesperson told Fin24 that a number of the board's members will be "rotated" out.
Eskom board chairman Ben Ngubane resigned earlier this month under a cloud. Ngubane has been under the spotlight since former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released her 'State of Capture' report implicating him in alleged improper dealings. Ngubane has been mentioned in the Gupta email leaks twice thus far.
Also, Eskom's previous acting CEO Matshela Koko was suspended earlier this year after allegations of a possible conflict of interest involving his stepdaughter‚ who was a director of a company that allegedly scored R1 billion in business from the parastatal.