Power utility Eskom has appointed Junaid Munshi group executive for its Distribution division, with effect from June 1. He takes over from Agnes Mlambo, who was appointed acting group executive for distribution following the secondment of Monde Bala as interim CEO of the National Transmission Company South Africa, where he was subsequently appointed CEO.

Eskom describes Munshi as a seasoned executive with more than three decades of engineering, marketing and commercial leadership experience in the technology and telecommunications sectors across South Africa and multiple African markets. 

Most recently, he served as chief commercial officer at Cable & Wireless Seychelles, where he was responsible for overall commercial strategy, revenue growth and market leadership, overseeing key functions including marketing, sales, customer service and field operations.

Prior to this, he held senior executive roles within organisations including Maziv Group, Cell C and Vodacom Group.

Eskom says Munshi's leadership approach is characterised by a strong focus on customer-centric business models, innovation, digital services and the development of high-performing teams, underpinned by a purpose-driven and results-oriented mindset.

“The decisive turning point of one year without loadshedding that we reached earlier this month marks a structural shift from a recovering grid to a stable, high-performing power system that advances the economy, competition and the integration of renewable energy. In the reformed, liberalised marketplace we recognise we are no longer a monopoly and need to compete to retain and expand our customer base and we are making the necessary investments to empower our distribution division teams to do so.

“As we have indicated before, we adopt the approach of augmenting internal capabilities with external capabilities, where required, to bring about speed to deliver on our strategy. We have again seen a noticeable increase in the volume and calibre of the applicants who want to work for Eskom, demonstrating that this is a company people want to bring their skills to and build their careers,” says Eskom CE Dan Marokane.

Munshi holds a BSc in Electronic Engineering from the University of Cape Town, a Graduate Diploma in Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and an MBA from Wits Business School.