A gospel group from Thohoyandou named Echo has an inspiring song of hope that says in part “it’s beginning to rain signs and wonders”. Eskom could use the message with the appointment of an erudite executive in Dan Marokane.
I have known Marokane for more than three decades and have always been fascinated by one overriding quality of persistence and resilience. Very few executives in our hostile environment against black executives would have survived the humiliating Gupta-inspired purge of executives at Eskom that was executed by the Jacob Zuma administration.
Maybe it's his Catholic grounding owing to his moulding by the school on the foot of the mountain in Mmakau, Tsogo High School, one of the best high schools in North West, or maybe his academic conquest under the shadow of a mountain at one of the best universities in our continent, the University of Cape Town. It may well be his international exposure at the University of London.
This is a well-rounded qualified engineering candidate with attributes sorely needed to resolve the Eskom crisis.
The crisis is going to need extraordinary technical and people leadership and resilience, not only because of the terrible mess operationally but the chaos in governance that stares any new CEO in the face, characterised by persistent political interference that has been made worse with at least three ministries that Eskom has to account to on a regular basis.
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane will have to deal with a desperate ruling party that wants load-shedding gone before the elections to at least remove it off the table as a battering ram for the elections by the opposition
They also have to contend with a National Treasury that can wake up with strange regulations, a façade of their inability to manage Eskom’s debt burden.
As if that is not enough, Marokane will have to deal with a desperate ruling party that wants load-shedding gone before the elections to at least remove it off the table as a battering ram for the elections by the opposition. This alone is going to be a tall order but a feat Marokane will have to face head on.
When he takes over, it will be a few weeks to the elections and if load-shedding is still our reality then, he is unlikely to make it go away on time.
When the minister of electricity took over, his first wrong pronouncement was that there is no problem of corruption at Eskom. This proved to be false, given what we know from André de Ruyter, who told us chapter and verse of the rot at the belly of the beast.
For night-time reading, Marokane must read both chief justice Raymond Zondo’s voluminous account of the state capture repercussions for Eskom as well as De Ruyter’s epistle Truth to Power.
To be a CEO of any parastatal, you either practise how to speak without a forked tongue or write and file your letter of resignation. There is enough handover in De Ruyter’s book to give Marokane a sense of where the tap may be leaking. He has to arrive with his eyes open in this regard, and this does not mean taking De Ruyter on his every word as gospel, but accepting his musings as a cautionary tale.
Eskom is in need of business rescue. Fresh from leading the executive team of the sugar giant Tongaat through a business rescue resulting in a clear expression of investor interests in the business, Marokane is the right guy to turn it all around. This with full appreciation that, unlike the sugar giant, Eskom is a behemoth owned by 60-million shareholders who all have a view about how best it can be fixed.
It will require balls of steel — but as they say, cometh the hour, cometh the man.
I believe South Africa has finally found its man of this moment. To succeed, his board will have to give him full support to remove any impediments that can later be used as an excuse for failure. Such support must include proper resources and political cover to ensure the politicians and businesspeople with vested interests do not become an inhibiting factor in some of the radical decisions he may need to take.
On a broader level, a new administration must of necessity rationalise the Eskom-related ministries that have a policy say over the power utility. The current multiple accountability is untenable.
Wishing Marokane Godspeed. As that Echo gospel song says, “this is the greatest move of the spirit — we dare not be left behind”. We all need him to succeed.
Dr JJ Tabane is adjunct professor of media studies at the University of Botswana. He is editor of Leadership Magazine and anchor of Power to Truth on eNCA, which is back on air on January 15 2024.
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