South Africa’s (SA) Electricity and Energy Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has confirmed that Dr Mteto Nyati will continue as Chairperson of Eskom, the country’s state-owned electricity utility.

The government says Eskom is entering a new phase of its recovery, with the focus shifting from improving power generation to building a financially sustainable utility, expanding the electricity grid, attracting new generation and strengthening its position in the regional power market.

Ramokgopa says the continuation of Nyati’s tenure comes with a broader mandate for Eskom to turn recent gains in generation performance into long-term energy security, financial sustainability and more reliable service for SA citizen.

“We need to ensure that Eskom is value delivery, in attending to technical losses, leakage, so that those inefficiencies are not passed to the end consumer. And we’re placing that at the door of the Eskom board to design that strategy and see how best we can resolve this question. Eskom must lower the cost of electricity supply by improving plant performance, procurement, maintenance, project delivery and workforce productivity. Our intention of lowering the cost of electricity will not materialize, will not eventuate, for as long as Eskom is unable to address these inefficiencies.”

Re-elected Nyati says energy affordability remains at the heart of the utility’s priorities.

“People have seen too much waste and too little consequence. At the same time, SA and countries across sub-Saharan Africa are pushing, and correctly so, they are pushing for local beneficiation of critical minerals and the manufacture of components that define the renewable energy era. There’s urgency around affordable energy that we cannot soften.”

–ChannelAfrica/ Innocent Semosa–