The final Cabinet meeting of 2019 mandated Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to negotiate with Andre de Ruyter to take up his duties as the new Eskom CEO earlier than the set date.

De Ruyter, currently CEO of packaging firm Nampak, was set to take up the Eskom top job on January 15.

Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu, on Tuesday briefed journalists on the outcomes of the Cabinet meeting held on December 13, and said De Ruyter would lead efforts to stabilise management and technical operations.

"Cabinet fully supports all efforts meant to ensure electricity supply certainty in our country. In this regard, Cabinet has mandated Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to negotiate with the chief executive officer Mr Andre de Ruyter to commence his duties earlier than the set date," said Mthembu.

"Mr De Ruyter together with his management team will immediately deal with the concerning issues of governance, lack of financial management, as well as stabilise the operations at Eskom. This includes dealing with the huge backlog of maintenance of the ageing fleet of their power stations and the structural defects in Medupi and Kusile power stations."

Mthembu also announced that Deputy President David Mabuza would convene a resuscitated energy war room comprising Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Gordhan. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Eskom said no load-shedding was expected on the day, and the probability of scheduled power cuts was low for the rest of the week.

''Eskom will continue to use emergency reserves to supplement capacity if necessary over this period," the power utility said. 

It added that its technical teams would continue to work throughout the Christmas holidays to reduce the magnitude of unplanned breakdowns to below 9,500 megawatt.

Consumers should reduce consumption to help lower the need for load-shedding, Eskom added.