The Board Chair of South Africa’s electricity company Eskom, Jabu Mabuza, has resigned after failing to keep his promise to stop the load shedding that is hampering the country’s growth.
This surprise resignation of Jabu Mabuza comes a few days after the arrival of a new CEO, Andre de Ruyter at the head of the public company, which produces about 95 percent of the country’s electricity.
Africa’s most industrialised country resumed load shedding over the weekend after a three-week truce.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had attributed some of the power cuts, the worst ever experienced by the continent’s leading industrial power, to “acts of sabotage” on 11 December.
Most of the electricity produced by Eskom comes from poorly designed, old and poorly maintained coal-fired power plants, as well as decades of alleged mismanagement and corruption.
The group is burdened with a huge debt of 28 billion euros and announced in July a record net loss of one point three billion euros for the fiscal year ending March.
