CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Brian Dames steps down from Eskom task team
Dames noted concerns regarding ‘perceived conflict of interest’ relating to the scope of work and terms of reference of the task team
Brian Dames, the former Eskom CEO who runs Patrice Motsepe’s energy company, has stepped down from the task team set up to advise the government on how to save the crisis-hit utility, citing "perceived" conflicts of interest. This comes just a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed him as part of the eight-person task team. The team includes Mick Davis, a former executive director at Eskom who went on to found Xstrata, which was eventually taken over by Glencore, one of the world’s biggest mining companies. The government is struggling to come up with a turnaround strategy for Eskom, which has debts of more than R400bn, largely guaranteed by the state, which have emerged as one of the key risks to the country losing its last investment-grade rating. A loss of that rating could potentially lead to capital outflows, raising borrowing costs across the economy. The power utility, which provides virtually all of the country’s energy needs, resorted to load-shedding in December, t...
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