Cape Town – Eskom chairperson Mpho Makwana has revealed that Eskom is edging closer to appointing a new CEO, with five candidates shortlisted.
The utility’s chairperson spoke at the National Demand Side Management Indaba on Monday morning.
“We’ve been quite advanced in the shortlisting process for the next new chief executive of Eskom, such that we now have a small shortlist of five candidates,” News24 quoted Makwana as saying.
Despite revealing details about Eskom’s search for a new CEO, Makwana did not give the names of those who had been shortlisted.
The utility began its hunt for a new CEO after Andre De Ruyter left the company following his explosive interview with eNCA in which he stated that “Eskom is a feeding trough for the ANC”.
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Businetech reported that interim CEO Calib Cassim shared that the power utility launched a national demand-side management initiative aimed at saving some 1,500MW of energy for the grid.
Demand-side management is regarded as a tool that can help the power utility potentially reduce load shedding.
“Eskom needs to focus on the supply in terms of our own plants, as well as getting the DMRE more capacity from an IPP [Independent Power Producers] perspective. But while we are looking at supply let’s not forget the importance of demand side management to close that gap in terms of that capacity shortfall.
“Eskom has launched its national demand management initiative. We are aiming to achieve a capacity from this initiative of just under 1,500MW…we think, and we know that the potential is much greater.
“At the end of the day, there’s only one objective for South Africa – stop load shedding as quickly as possible. But we need to do it in a way that ensures that we don’t compromise the integrity of the grid,” Cassim was quoted as saying.
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
