• Eskom’s chief financial officer Calib Cassim has been appointed interim chief executive officer.
• The registered Chartered Accountant has been with the utility for 20 years.
• He enters the position as South Africa enters its 5th consecutive day of Stage 6 loadshedding.

Things are a mess at Eskom this week after the utility’s board of directors allowed former group chief executive officer Andre de Ruyter to step down early without finishing his notice period.

This morning Eskom announced that chief financial officer Calib Cassim will take up the mantle of interim group chief executive officer at the utility.

A registered Chartered Accountant, Cassim has been with Eskom or over 20 years according to the utility. The utility adds that he also holds a master’s degree in Business Leadership.

“With over 20 years of service in Eskom, his qualifications and extensive experience have provided Mr Cassim with a deep understanding and appreciation of the Eskom business and the electricity industry, especially regarding the challenges facing the financing of operations and future expansion of the industry,” Eskom said in a media statement.

The country will now be look to Cassim to navigate the turbulent waters the utility faces. With Stage 6 loadshedding having been in effect since Sunday evening, South Africans are fed up with the utility.

Tweets below Eskom’s announcement of the new interim CEO are littered with questions about how Cassim is going to end loadshedding and whether he will communicate more effectively with South Africans.

To that end, Eskom hasn’t communicated with South Africans as regards loadshedding since Monday afternoon when it outlined the challenges it faced.

Since then Andre de Ruyter featured in an explosive interview with e.tv’s Annika Larsen which lead to the board allowing him to leave the firm with immediate effect. The former CEO made many allegations in that interview including that nearly an estimated R1 billion was lost to corruption in Eskom every day.

ANC Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula vowed to take action against De Ruyter.

“That man – he must prove what he said about us… We will challenge him for saying that our party is corrupt and failing to prove how,” Mbalula was quoted as saying by Daily Maverick.

This isn’t a good look if De Ruyter’s claims are accurate as it could be seen as government going after whistle-blowers rather than supporting them. This could have major consequences as regards the sort of people who become part of the utility in the future.

Best of luck to Cassim, we don’t envy his position.