Nov 12th - Trouble at the grid

Nov 12th 2009 | JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition

A race row over electricity

UNTIL the end of last month, Eskom, the state-owned power company, was mainly known for its inefficiency and incompetence. Power cuts have been maddeningly common throughout the country. But now the company has been engulfed by another, much more South African, sort of row, about race.

On October 30th rumours first circulated that the board had asked Jacob Maroga, Eskom’s chief executive, who is black, to step down. A month earlier a group of senior employees at the cash-strapped utility were reported to have sent an anonymous letter to the minister for public enterprises, demanding his removal. On November 5th it was reported that Mr Maroga had not been pushed after all, but had resigned after a clash with the board’s chairman, Bobby Godsell, who is white.

The next day it emerged that both men had offered their resignations to Eskom’s board on October 28th after a stormy discussion over the direction the troubled company should take. More convinced by Mr Godsell’s vision of the future, the board refused his resignation but accepted that of Mr Maroga, who had presided over the shortages as well as increases in prices. His resignation was announced by Mr Godsell a day later. But Mr Maroga, who had apparently reckoned that the board, on which blacks have a majority, would back him, then “withdrew” his resignation.

The Youth League of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) then joined the fray, denouncing Mr Godsell as a racist for his “hideous attempts to undermine African leadership” in the economy. The Black Management Forum was equally indignant, saying that state-owned enterprises were being turned into “slaughterhouses” for black professionals. Eskom’s sole shareholder, the government, was silent.

By November 9th Mr Maroga was back at his CEO’s desk. Hours later Mr Godsell, who was said to have met President Jacob Zuma the previous weekend, announced his own resignation, citing lack of government support. Many South Africans were appalled. The main trade-union federation said Mr Godsell’s departure would be a “great loss”. There was not “a shred of evidence” that he was a racist, it added.

Now Eskom says it is “proceeding on the basis that Mr Maroga is no longer the CEO.” The government continues to say nothing. Meanwhile South Africans can expect their lights to flicker on and off.

Source : http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14861585