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Man in charge
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Thebe Mabanga
Financial Mail
Friday, February 05, 2010
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Mpho Makwana has had to bring all his marketing skills to bear in his latest role as acting chairman and CEO of Eskom. Throughout January, he has had to sell a bitter pill : Eskom's application to increase the electricity price 35%/year for three years.
His office says he will not be granting interviews until after the tariff application process.
Makwana has acquired a wealth of academic and corporate experience in some of the "softer" areas of business such as marketing, human resources and transformation strategy.
Makwana has a good grasp of strategy and scenario planning, says a corporate consultant, adding: "What technical skills he may lack he will leverage off other board members, as he is a solid team player." He also says Makwana's membership of the Eskom board since 2002 gives him "reasonable insight" into the business.
Cosatu Western Cape general secretary Tony Ehrenreich, who met Makwana during the Eskom tariff hearings, found him "approachable" and open to frank exchange. He maintains, however, that the pricing issue and Makwana's difficult position can be resolved only through a political decision by government to source funds from elsewhere.
Makwana matriculated in 1987 at Promat College, which specialised in providing good education for bright but disadvantaged students. He took a public administration & political science degree at the then University of Natal, followed by an honours degree at Pretoria University in 2000. Later he completed an executive development programme at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in the US and an MBA from the University of Stirling in Scotland.
A former head of the Institute for Personnel Management and the International Marketing Council (Brand SA), Makwana was among the first generation of professionals who have tried to help government when, in 1994, he was seconded from the BMF to the department of labour as director for equal opportunity. He has held an assortment of roles in corporate SA and industry bodies, including executive directorships at ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, a stint as director of public-sector banking at Standard Bank, and executive director for transformation at Edcon.
In 2002, Makwana helped launch Epitome Investments Holdings, which invests in the marketing and communications sector, and became a member of Futureworld, a think tank which assists companies in scenario planning. He is on the council of the universitie s of Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, his alma mater.
In November, Makwana undertook to complete the process of finding a successor to former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga in three months. Allowing for the public hearings delay, he should be submitting a short list later this month. Government would then have to show whether it believes he can lead the board on a permanent basis.
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