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Smiles, rage as parties respond to departure  Comments
November 6, 2009

By Donwald Pressly


An internal memo distributed within Eskom yesterday morning alerted the power parastatal's staff to the departure of chief executive Jacob Maroga.

It was released at Parliament by DA MP Cobus Schmidt. The memo from the Eskom board read in part: "Jacob Maroga has resigned as chief executive of Eskom with immediate effect."

A meeting between the public enterprises portfolio committee with the chief executive and Eskom board, scheduled for this morning, has been cancelled. A press conference with Eskom at Megawatt Park in Johannesburg was also cancelled yesterday.

Schmidt said Maroga's resignation - which was denied by the ANC Youth League, who said it was a plot on behalf of Eskom chairman Bobby Godsell - followed months of criticism from the DA. He noted Maroga's decision to fire international energy consultant Susan Olsen, who warned in a confidential memo to Maroga that Eskom's coal procurement practices were placing electricity supplies in jeopardy.

Schmidt also noted that reports on Eskom's lack of experience and failure to understand coal markets played "a significant role" in its later supply problems and how Eskom's "haemorrhaging of talented staff" - as Olsen called it - had left the power utility lacking leadership experience, knowledge and direction.


Schmidt, who welcomed the resignation, said that during Maroga's tenure, no action had been taken to address serious problems with the Medupi power plant, including that it could drain parts of the Waterberg and Hartebeestpoort Dam.

The ANC Youth League said in a statement that Maroga had not resigned and rejected the Eskom board's attempts "to push" Maroga out of Eskom.

"The board, which is under the manipulative control of Bobby Godsell, has tried every trick in the book to get rid of Maroga, including through (the) increment of his salary amid electricity challenges, so that the South African public can perceive him as greedy."

Godsell recently said he was asked by former public enterprises minister Alec Erwin and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe to take up the job as chairman.
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Showing page 1 of 1 comment pages, 4 total comments
7 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
The ranting of the ANCYL just proof how shortsighted and immature this organization is, they like putting their smelly noses in matters which doesn`t need their stupid input. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to pick up the deficiencies which marked Mr. Maroga`s tenure, and for the first time in my life did I see this level of power outages affecting even hospitals although they should have generator back up. I am also appalled by the BMF`s statement, should we now keep an under- performing CEO after this damage to the economy because he is maybe their member or an AA appointment .Mr. Tokyo Sexwale or was it Mr. Phoswa were very right about the way AA was applied, we cannot do it at the expense of the economy, AA can rather go to hell. By the way this stupid unions and their immature children in the ANCYL must stop this rubbish about Nationalization
7 Weeks ago PeterZ wrote :
Now who the hell is ruling the country. The anc or the anc youth league?
7 Weeks ago Dodger - ex contractor London wrote :
About time. Eskom needs to be privatised & get a restructured top management & get rid of all the "free loaders" who will never make a decision. The skills base within Eskom has gone & virtually all the experienced contractors who held Eskom together have also gone at the bidding of Eskom senior management. Their version of cost saving is to remove all contractors which has a major knock on effect. Now they have the cheek to try & get them back & sort out the mess. The last person to leave must turn out the lights !!
7 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
Maybe he left of his own free will ,maybe not. At the end of the day the racist remarks are un called for, both in and out of Eskom. We can only hope, Pray and trust that whoever takes his place, no matter his colour, is going to do a fine job, both for Eskom and the public !!! Good luck to Jacob, may he be happy wherever he goes.
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