Two top Eskom executives resign

Johannesburg - Two of Eskom's top executives have resigned, the parastatal has confirmed.

Eskom's group executive for sustainability Steve Lennon would leave at the end of March next year and group executive enterprise development and acting group executive of customer services Erica Johnson leaves at the end of October, spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said.

"The reasons are personal to Erica Johnson and Steve Lennon," he said on Wednesday.

Etzinger would not comment further on the resignations.

According to reports, Lennon and not current acting chief executive Collin Matjila had been the original choice for the interim position at Eskom.

Balance sheet

The embattled state electricity utility has been in financial crisis.

The government has come up with a bail-out plan to help Eskom.

The package, announced by the national Treasury earlier this month, includes tariff increases and increased borrowing.

Acting Cabinet spokesperson Phumla Williams last week said the package consisted among other things, an injection by government of additional equity into Eskom to help the utility strengthen its balance sheet and enabling it to borrow more from financial markets.

Further details would be given by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in his medium-term budget policy statement on 22 October.

Management measures

Williams at the time said other elements of the package included a strong improvement in Eskom's operational efficiencies, which would reduce costs and a R50bn increase in debt raised by Eskom, which would be supported by the existing government guarantee.

The government would also further back Eskom's application to the National Energy Regulator of SA for an adjustment to the tariff, which was in line with normal regulatory processes.

Other elements included demand management measures, refinements to energy policy and the expansion of the independent power producer programme.