Africa-Press – South-Africa. Dan Marokane and Calib Cassim took on the job of leading Eskom when the utility’s chances of survival were increasingly slim.
Being the Eskom CEO, temporarily in Cassim’s case, meant taking on immense personal reputational risk and potentially the end of a career among C-suite executives.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa explained at Eskom’s most recent results presentation that these two individuals took on the most difficult job in the country.
“This was a poisoned chalice. There were no chances of success at this utility, personally or as the business more broadly,” Ramokgopa said.
When Marokane became CEO in December 2023, Eskom had gone through 15 CEOs, in various forms, in 17 years.
This instability and the utility’s dismal operating performance led to its CEO position being labelled as the toughest job in the country.
Eskom’s CEO reports to at least two government departments and has to deal with widespread corruption and crime, alongside immense public scrutiny. All the while, the CEO has to ensure the lights are kept on.
Despite this, Marokane and Cassim, now back in his preferred position as Eskom’s CFO, have not only survived in the job but led the utility to its first profit in eight years.
Eskom’s performance has dramatically improved since March 2023, when its energy availability factor (EAF) dipped below 50%. Now, its fleet is operating with an EAF above 70%.
This has led to a dramatic decline in load-shedding, reduced diesel expenditure, and enabled Eskom to begin thinking about the future.
As a result of its operational improvements, Eskom’s financial performance has somewhat recovered, with a R16.05 billion profit recorded for the 2025 financial year.
This has led to widespread praise for Marokane, with him inheriting an Eskom virtually on its knees after experiencing record load-shedding throughout 2023.
Ramokgopa, in his speech at Eskom’s results presentation, brought more attention to Cassim’s role in stabilising the utility for the ten-month period after Andre de Ruyter unceremoniously vacated the CEO position and when Marokane took the helm.
He said Cassim’s role in helping Eskom stabilise its operational performance and now in rescuing the utility’s finances has been underappreciated.
The toughest job in South Africa
Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter
The job of Eskom CEO has always been taxing on the individual at the helm, with the monopoly being the most important company in the country.
Providing reliable electricity to a population of over 60 million people and an economy with over R7 trillion of output is never going to be easy.
However, the job over the past decade has become increasingly difficult due to factors outside of the typical ‘bread and butter’ issues at Eskom, which relate to the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity.
Increasing political attention has been paid to the utility and the individual at its helm, with Eskom reporting to multiple government departments and a revolving door of CEOs ratcheting up pressure on whoever takes on the job.
The CEO position has become about much more than providing electricity to South Africa, with it being equally about managing political expectations and demands.
When the going gets tough, it has proven incredibly easy for politicians and government officials to shift the blame and responsibility onto Eskom’s CEO.
On top of this, the job has also become more difficult due to the rise of well-organised criminal syndicates and widespread corruption at the utility.
Not only do these syndicates disrupt Eskom’s operations and, in some cases, deliberately sabotage infrastructure, but they have also become embedded within the utility’s workforce.
Eskom’s last CEO before Cassim and then Marokane, Andre de Ruyter, described the role as bruising, highly pressured, and extremely complex.
“I would have liked to be seen as the knight on the white horse coming in and fixing all the problems. Clearly, this is impossible,” he said.
In his book, Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom, De Ruyter said the job proved far more difficult than he anticipated.
“After being Eskom CEO, I feel bruised, especially after being accused of high treason, told not to play policeman, and suffering an attempted poisoning,” he said.
According to De Ruyter, crime and corruption are endemic within Eskom and the “ecosystem in which we operate”.
After De Ruyter vacated the position, President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would personally applaud anyone who has the courage to take on the job.
In this environment, it is remarkable that Cassim and Marokane have been willing to remain in the firing line and steer the utility through its worst crisis yet.
The men who survived
Eskom CFO Calib Cassim
Cassim was never thought of as being CEO of Eskom, as he rose through the ranks in the utility’s financial department to take its top job of CFO.
As Ramokgopa pointed out, his role in stabilising the utility in the period between De Ruyter and Marokane is overlooked.
Cassim’s most notable achievement as acting CEO came when Eskom began implementing its Generation Recovery Plan in March 2023.
This plan was widely credited for turning around the utility’s coal-fired power plants’ operational performance and is the main reason why load-shedding has come to an end.
Cassim’s time as acting CEO was meant to only last for a few months, but ended up nearly lasting a year as the utility searched for a new leader.
Under his leadership, Eskom stabilised its declining EAF and started to improve its operational performance towards the end of his tenure.
South Africa got through the 2023 winter months better than most expected, due to lower-than-planned demand and improved generation capacity.
When he handed the reins to Dan Marokane, the power utility was on an upward trajectory thanks to the implementation of the recovery plan.
After spending 23 years, and counting, at Eskom, Cassim has a deep appreciation of the utility’s financial predicament and operational performance.
Cassim is a qualified chartered accountant and holds a Master’s degree in business leadership, which he completed while working at Eskom.
In his previous role before becoming CFO, Cassim was the General Manager for Financial Planning and Economic Regulation. He was responsible for the application of electricity price adjustments to Nersa.
At the end of the 2025 financial year, Cassim was able to present Eskom’s first profit since 2017 and his first profit as the utility’s CFO.
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane
Marokane inherited a stable but critical Eskom from Cassim. The utility had its worst load-shedding year on record and was sitting on R396.3 billion in debt.
One thing Marokane enjoyed was the full support of the board due to his vast experience at the utility and within the broader electricity sector.
Marokane also had some experience in turning around a company, having been intimately involved in the process to keep sugar producer Tongaat Hulett operational.
As a qualified chemical engineer with a Master’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of London and a business administration degree from the University of Cape Town, Marokane was the perfect candidate.
What tipped him over the edge was his years of experience working at Eskom in various roles, including leadership positions.
Marokane has served as chairman of Eskom Enterprises and the utility’s chief commercial and technology officer.
Most notably, he rose to become the group executive for capital, which quickly became a target on his back and was the reason he left the utility.
Alongside other executives, he was suspended in 2015 to make room for people collaborating with the Gupta family to engage in corrupt dealings at Eskom.
The division that Marokane controlled was overseeing the construction of major projects, including Kusile and Medupi, which were key sites of state capture that saw the utility lose billions of rands.
Before rejoining Eskom, Marokane worked at Tongaat Hulett first as an executive and then finally acting CEO in 2023.
“He has been a key member of the management team, which led the company’s turnaround journey,” Tongaat said in a statement after Marokane’s promotion to acting CEO.
“He played an important role in internal cash flow optimisation programmes and the management of the company’s asset disposals.”
After less than a year as Tongaat’s acting CEO, Marokane was appointed to the top job at Eskom, where the utility was trying to regain the skills lost during state capture.
Eskom said Marokane was joining the company at a time when it faced an existential crisis that required hands-on, bold, and decisive leadership.
Eskom’s board appears to have been proven right in appointing Marokane to the CEO position, with the utility significantly improving its operational performance and substantially reducing load-shedding.
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