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Brown says decision on Eskom CEO, bailout will be made within weeks

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown

Photo by Duane Daws

7th August 2014

By: Terence Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown says she has made a decision on her preferred candidate for the position of CEO of Eskom and will present the name at the next Cabinet meeting for approval.

She indicated that a Cabinet committee would deliberate on the appointment next week and that the appointment would be discussed at the upcoming Cabinet meeting, scheduled for August 20.

Brown was handed a list of candidates by the Eskom board following a recruitment process, which was initiated following the resignation of Brian Dames in late 2013.

Since the departure of Dames at the end of March, nonexecutive director Collin Matjila had been acting as interim CEO.

Brown told attendees to a SABC2-The New Age briefing on Thursday that the appointment had been a top priority for her since she had been taken by surprise by President Jacob Zuma and named Public Enterprises Minister just two months ago.

She indicated that she was also currently seized with ways to deal with the State power utility's financial problems, but reiterated that privatisation was "not on the cards".

Instead, she and her Ministerial colleagues – Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson – were studying a draft bailout proposal that included additional shareholder support possibly involving the conversion of loans into equity, the injection of new equity and the extension of further guarantees.

Privatisation, she said, was not current government policy and any sale of state assets, or companies, was an option for "the far future, I suppose".

The three Ministers and their technical advisers were scheduled to meet again within days to deliberate on the matter, which needed to be decided well ahead of the next round of updates from the credit ratings agencies in September.

Speaking later in Pretoria, Nene refused to be drawn on the likely support for Eskom and also argued that it was premature to refer to the intervention as a bailout.

In the meantime Brown said Eskom would push ahead with its "belt-tightening" exercise, while also taking action to ensure there were no further delays to the introduction of new capacity from Medupi and Kusile.

She again confirmed that Medupi Unit 6 would be synchronised to the grid in December, adding that Eskom, the electricity system and the economy could not endure the costs associated with further delays.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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