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Thursday, November 12, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

The board of South African power utility Eskom has insisted that CEO Jacob Maroga has resigned, despite his denial. This raises more questions about the leadership wrangle at the firm.

Maroga, who quit last week, returned to work on Monday after apparently winning out in a power struggle with chairperson Bobby Godsell, who resigned the same day.

But spokesperson Andrew Etzinger says that Maroga hasn't been back to his office since Tuesday, adding that the board hasn't changed its stance on the chief executive's resignation.

Maroga's tenure has been marked by power shortages, a record loss of 9,7-billion-rand in the year to March, and electricity price rises criticised for stoking inflation as South Africa battles recession.

Meanwhile, in a separate report, the board of Armscor has asked CEO Sipho Thomo to resign, but a stand-off is looming as he refuses to go.

Board chairperson Popo Molefe told Parliament's portfolio committee on defence that he had asked Thomo last week to quit, and gave him three days to consider the matter.

He said that Armscor had come to the conclusion that he was taking all of them down and that the State arms procurement utility's woes would only be resolved if he left.

Molefe said that the board had asked him to resign. Thomo should have got back to Molefe on Saturday, but by Monday he hadn't done so.

Molefe said that the board would have to look at which options were open to it. Thomo, however, said that he had no plans to quit.

Also making headlines:

CIC Energy president Greg Kinross says that the South African government, and not Eskom, is the ultimate decision maker with respect to the Mmamabula energy project, in Botswana.
The Allandale bridge, in Midrand, makes way for a free-flowing interchange.
Dealer confidence starts to return to the new vehicle market.
And, PetroSA delays its gas-to-liquids refinery start-up owing to bad weather.

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