Mteto Nyati in conversation with Ann Bernstein
- Ann Bernstein, CDE executive director, spoke to the Chairman of Eskom, Mteto Nyati, about Eskom, leadership, SOEs and South Africa’s future.
- According to Nyati many of South Africa’s challenges are linked to a lack of competent, effective leaders. This challenge is exacerbated by a culture of being too respectful to the people in charge, which ensures that leaders are not held accountable for their failures.
- Nyati sees the diversity in the government of national unity (GNU) as a strength, increasing the likelihood that innovative solutions to South Africa’s greatest challenges will emerge.
- He is positive about government and organised business coming together to tackle the crises in energy, crime, and logistics, but believes that the partnership would be strengthened if the business sector asserted itself more and played a stronger role in defining the economic agenda, along with government.
- Eskom’s recent recovery is a direct consequence of appointing a strong board, with six engineers, seven or eight chartered accountants, and specialists in organisational culture and labour relations. They identified the critical challenges to tackle as a lack of proper maintenance, the flouting of standard operating procedures, and contracting substandard companies to service power stations.
- As chairman, Nyati intervened on the issue of service agreements between Eskom and the companies that had designed and built critical equipment. Localisation rules had pushed power stations into working with local companies that frequently returned ‘serviced’ equipment in worse condition than when it had been sent in.
- Eskom has collaborated with the SIU and the police in investigating fraud and corruption. So far, they have gathered detailed data, identified individuals involved in corruption, and created a clearer picture of what is happening.
