Eskom has announced two new executive appointments, including a head of renewables, marking the completion of “the strengthening of its executive teams within the business to execute initiatives faster and more efficiently”.

Rivoningo Mnisi has been appointed Group Executive: Renewables. He brings over 20 years of experience in digitalisation, innovation and sustainability. “Our focus is to deliver a renewable energy business that will become a significant player in the sector with an executable initial pipeline of at least 2 GW of clean energy projects by 2026. We are also committed to progressing a broader pipeline of more than 20GW to support Eskom’s emissions reduction efforts,” Mnisi says.

He previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at Exxaro and has held positions at Anglo American. He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Johannesburg, BSc (Hons) in applied science from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Dr Candice Hartley has been appointed Chief People Officer. She joins Eskom with 20 years of experience in human resources across various sectors including finance, industrial, information technology and fast-moving consumer goods. “My focus will be to ensure Eskom has the skills required to operate in a competitive marketplace while transitioning our human capital practices to align with our strategic objectives,” Hartley says.

Prior to her appointment, Hartley served as Executive Partner and Head of People at KPMG South Africa and has held senior roles at AECI, British American Tobacco, Pernod Ricard, Lenovo, Barloworld, Standard Bank and South African Breweries. She holds an MBA and a postgraduate diploma in business administration from the University of Pretoria, BA (Hons) in psychology from the University of Johannesburg and a PhD from the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Commerce.

Strategic initiatives

“In the last 10 months, we have focused on strengthening our executive team not only to bring in specialist skills to drive the delivery of our strategy in a fast-moving and increasingly competitive marketplace but also to address the legacy management control issues that have characterised our recent audit findings,” says Eskom’s Group Chief Executive Dan Marokane.

Eskom’s strategic plan, announced in June last year, includes several key initiatives over the next 36 months:

• Increasing the energy availability factor to 70%.
• Returning more than 2,5 GW of capacity to the grid by March 2025.
• Developing at least 2 GW of clean energy projects by 2026.
• Re-baselining cost trajectories and enhancing operational efficiencies.
• Addressing municipal debt challenges.
• Unbundling the Distribution and Generation divisions.
• Implementing measures to facilitate a just energy transition.

“We will continue to focus on improving generation capacity, strengthening governance structures and addressing crime and corruption to ensure long-term energy security and sustainability. These efforts are crucial to the benefit of South Africa and the broader sub-Saharan region,” Marokane says.