Mike Rossouw
Photo by: Duane Daws
Energy Intensive User Group (EIUG) chairperson Mike Rossouw has been appointed as Hatch Goba’s new director for power and has left Xstrata Alloys, where he served as an executive director for five years.
However, his former employer, GlencoreXstrata, together with Hatch Goba and the other members of the EIUG, have agreed that Rossouw should continue to lead the organisation, whose 31 members consume about 44% of South Africa’s electrical energy and whose operations turn over about R800-billion yearly.
Rossouw has been a central figure in helping industry and Eskom navigate the prevailing electricity shortages since the load-shedding crisis of 2008.
However, he has also been an outspoken critic of the sharp electricity price increases, which have placed strain on the competitiveness of mining, beneficiation and manufacturing enterprises.
As chairperson of the Industry Task Team on Climate Change, he has also been a strong opponent of government’s plan to introduce a carbon tax from 2015.
Since completing his electrical engineering studies at the University of Pretoria in 1976, Rossouw has spent the bulk of his 30-year career within the natural resources sector, where he has played various technical and managerial roles in the gold, manganese, titanium, platinum and chrome sectors.
He also served for five years as an independent director of the National Electricity Regular of South Africa.