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Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines today:

Deputy vice-chancellor of research at the University of Johannesburg, analyst Adam Habib, says that the latest developments at Eskom are a "complete disaster", after Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell resigned on Monday and CEO Jacob Maroga returned to work after his own apparent recent resignation.

Habib says that there is now clearly a public crisis at the level of Eskom.

He says that, even if there was no political intervention, as speculated, Monday's developments created this perception after the ANC Youth League's insistence that Maroga hadn't resigned.

Habib says that there was a dispute between Godsell and Maroga, and the CEO seems to have taken precedence.Either the chairperson of the board made the announcement of Maroga's resignation without a mandate, or he had a mandate and then the board acted against him, or the board was
overridden by a higher authority.

Habib isn't sure which scenario is accurate, but says that one can't continue with crisis after crisis in public institutions.

Meanwhile, South Africa's powerful National Union of Mineworkers has defended the non-racial credentials of former Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell and has also raised concerns about seeming breaches of good governance principles at the State-owned enterprise.

Speaking with Engineering News Online on Tuesday morning, NUM general-secretary Frans Baleni stressed that the union had had extensive experience of working with Godsell, who "is not a racist".

His comment gelled with one made earlier in the day by Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who told the SABC that Godsell was an individual who supported transformation.

Beleni said that the union was also concerned about the recent handling of the Eskom leadership crisis and the seeming undermining of good corporate governance principles at the utility.

Also making headlines:

South Africa won't increase its 2013 renewable energy target of 10 000 GWh.
Vodacom scales down its capital expenditure to R7-billion.
Zambia's only oil refinery resumes output.
And, the recession has had a 'catastrophic effect' on the local catalytic converter industry.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.