Maroga: I just carried the can

Johannesburg – Former Eskom boss Jacob Maroga has blamed legacy issues for the country's power problems. He said he had been at the mercy of negative circumstances, and warned there was no common objective between government and its other state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Speaking for the first time since being deposed from the electricity utility at a meeting of the Black Management Forum on Thursday, Maroga said he was "just the guy to carry the can" and a victim of bad timing, having become CEO of Eskom in 2007 in a period when the country's electricity crisis peaked.

"We as a country messed up our electricity planning. There was a no-build policy when Eskom continued to connect 300 000 households every year since 1995," said Maroga, speaking on the leadership challenges facing parastatals. "The policy was don't build [any more power stations]."

Speaking candidly for the first time about his "leadership lessons" as the head of Eskom from early 2007 until the end of 2009 - when he was ousted in an acrimonious battle with the company's board - Maroga said before he took over as Eskom CEO there were already problems resulting form the shareholder's no-build decision.

He referred to the infamous "bolt" incident at the Koeberg nuclear station which plunged the Western Cape into darkness and a major blackout in a Johannesburg suburb before he took over as bad omens for his tenure.

"But such is the thing about corporate leadership, you are accountable whether or not you are guilty of bad decisions."

Maroga said what was most needed by the country was leadership at the highest level. "My first lesson is that the biggest need is leadership. We have the biggest hunger for leadership. What SOEs need is a clear strategic vision from the government about what it is they need to achieve."

Maroga said there was no common objective between the government, companies it owns and management in those companies.

"[Company] boards know what they want. But the government doesn't," said Maroga.

Likening the different interests of the various role players to sport, Maroga said even the best players need a game plan before they go onto the field.

"If you put 11 players in a soccer field, each with his own game plan and different sport, it can never work," he said. "It doesn't matter how good they are as individual players. You can't mix rugby players and soccer players in the same field and think they can play the same game."

Asked whether Eskom’s management tried hard enough to argue for more power generation prior to the supply crisis, Maroga said it did.

"We shouted loud enough, but it was a shareholder decision," said Maroga. "It's not helping to blame, what we need is to learn from the mistakes in electricity."

 - Fin24.com