Eskom may get ‘bad cop’ to oversee rescue
Of all the executives, government officials and consultants being recruited to tackle the mammoth task of rescuing state power utility Eskom, the toughest task could fall to the person who has to take it apart.
President Cyril Ramaphosa last month said a soon-to-be appointed chief restructuring officer will be “expected to re-position Eskom financially with careful attention to the mix between revenue, debt and cost structure of the company.” That euphemistic job description skirts around what the person will inevitably have to do: fire thousands of workers, split it into three units and help reorganize a R440bn debt mountain.
“They’ve got to have a guy who’s going to be the figurehead, the bad cop” to deal with over-staffing and take the other difficult decisions, and that’s likely to be the CRO, said Andrew Levy, managing partner of Andrew Levy Employment, which advises companies on labour relations. “The politicians – whether it’s Cyril or cabinet or anyone else – can’t be seen to be in this arena, it’s too dangerous politically.”
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