Pretoria - The State Owned Entities Communicators Association (SOECA) has welcomed the appointment of Tshediso Matona as Chief Executive Officer of Eskom.
"We believe he has the experience and managerial capacity to lead the utility. Critically, he understands the policy posture of government - something essential for a position of this nature," said SOECA President Congress Mahlangu in a statement on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown announced that Matona, the current Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) Director General, had been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the power parastatal.
Mahlangu said that for government policy to find expression in strategic state owned enterprises and in the economy in general, it was imperative to bring those who were closer to policy formulation right to the centre of the action.
Citing the experience of the Land Bank, where Mahlangu works, and other state owned companies (SOCs), he said there was merit in Cabinet appointing former top government bureaucrats in strategic positions at SOCs.
"The appointment of former Deputy Director General at Treasury, Phakamile Hadebe, to the CEO position at the Land Bank showed the wisdom behind such decisions. He turned around the bank and left it in good shape.
"The same applies to Brian Molefe, another former Deputy Director General at Treasury who went on to lead the Public Investment Corporation with distinction and is continuing on the same path at Transnet. SANRAL CEO, a former Chief Director at the Department of Transport, is another example. All these former government technocrats have successfully run the SOCs they were deployed to," he said.
Mahlangu said SOECA was confident that Matona would follow in the same tradition.
"We look forward to his tenure at Eskom and our organisation will support him wherever it can."
He said it was regrettable that some were already casting doubts about the ability and suitability of Matona to lead Eskom.
SOECA is an association of communicators and marketers working for state owned entities across all three spheres of government. – SAnews.gov.za
