‘I knew what I was coming into’: Eskom CEO Dan Marokane on first 100 days in office

Being familiar with the business, having a competent team around him and ensuring he got enough rest.

These are some of the things that help Eskom's group CEO Dan Marokane handle the pressure and demands that come with steering the utility in troubled waters.

Marokane reflected on his first 100 days in office as the boss at the parastatal during a press briefing on Friday.

Marokane's milestone comes as the country marks 79 consecutive days without load-shedding, surpassing a feat last accomplished between December 5 2021 and February 2 2022. He joined the utility on March 1.

Making opening remarks was board chairperson Mteto Nyati, who noted three priorities Marokane had to focus on when he took the role. These were: to assess and review the generation recovery plan already in place when he joined and tweak where necessary; oversee the process of Eskom's unbundling; and help the utility to “reconnect with [the various] stakeholders”.

“We asked him to do those three priorities and this is one of the things he's sharing, reflecting on the work we asked him to do and also sharing his view of how he's taking the business forward,” Nyathi said.

Marokane said the past few months had been spent building on and refining the “work done by the board and executive committee last year” and developing what he termed an “executable plan” aimed at taking the utility forward.

This included setting up Eskom to move beyond load-shedding and instead, focus on the “next version” of the utility.

“It is on the back of this strategic initiative that [we are] comfortable that there is an opportunity for us to place Eskom in a position where it continues to play a leading role in electricity supply in the country.

“We will, as we do the transition, also focus on the continuation of the operational recovery. It's important that the generation recovery plan is taken to its fullest level, that we strengthen and beef up governance within the business and deal with aspects that are troublesome ... and also set up those businesses that are going to be unbundled on a path that they are future-proof.”

These are the National Transmission Company of South Africa and the distribution business, which Marokane said would focus on “finalising the unbundling” and “operatising” them.

He also spoke about municipal debt, which he said would be a key area for Eskom in future.

Despite that 72 municipalities applied for the utility's debt relief programme and 70 being accepted, the compliance level was only at 4%.

“We believe it is almost time the country gets into a conversation with energy and gusto ... to tackle municipal debt and find a sustainable way in which electricity provision can be paid for at municipal level.”

Marokane said the biggest shock for him was the extent of the skills flight at the utility at technical and executive levels.

On how he has coped with the pressure of the role, he said: “When I came here I knew what I was coming into. I was in this business before so I had a sense of what it demands. I've looked from a distance at the challenges Eskom was facing, so, mentally, I knew I'm going to invest a lot time and also in my own mental health and I tried to rest as much as I could.

“I have been surrounded by a competent team of executives that started work before I arrived and they continue to work with me. We will complement the capacity we have and hopefully that will create space for me to balance the workload and mental strength [as well as] health. It helps that I am familiar with the business,” he said.