Standard Bank names former Eskom CEO as new chair

Johannesburg - Standard Bank said Thulani Gcabashe, the former head of Eskom, will replace current chairperson Fred Phaswana at the end of this month.

Gcabashe, 57, has been an independent non-executive director of Standard Bank since 2003, the bank said in a statement on Thursday.

Phaswana, 70, is due to retire at the bank’s May 28 annual general meeting.

Gcabashe was CEO of Eskom for seven years until 2007, a year before South Africa was forced to implement rolling blackouts because of a lack of power generating capacity.

Eskom announced stage 1 load shedding earlier on Thursday.

READ: Eskom starts stage 1 load shedding

He will step down as chairperson of Imperial Holdings, owner of South Africa’s largest car-dealer network, at the AGM on November 3, Imperial said in a separate statement on Thursday.

Gcabashe is currently chairperson of BuiltAfrica and MTN Zakhele and a non-executive director of Togo Invest.

He will review these positions, according to Standard Bank.