Rhulani Mathebula, the interim group executive for generation at Eskom, is reportedly resigning from his position immediately.

After Phillip Dukashe's resignation on 31 May, Mathebula was appointed and officially resumed duties in June. In the last six months, he is the second generational leader to leave.

Decades of experience

According to News24, Thomas Conradie was named as the new acting generation group executive by Eskom on Tuesday.

The electric utility referred to Mathebula at the time of his appointment as a "seasoned power station general manager" who had served as group executive for generation before to Dukashe's appointment.

Mathebula resigned because of the detrimental effect the position had on his personal life, according to Eskom group COO Jan Oberholzer during the company's state of the system conference on Tuesday.

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"It was undoubtedly disappointing, but I respect the choice. One must comprehend the demands of this position.

Oberholzer stated that "choosing a generation business leader to steer this ship would be a very difficult choice."

Conradie, who has worked for Eskom for 24 years, previously managed the Kriel and Lethabo power plants.

He graduated from Stellenbosch University with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and the Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership with an MBA.

More load shedding on the way

During its briefing on Tuesday, Eskom stated that over the coming weeks, it will be starting "significant capital investment projects" and making repairs.

These implementations, which are an unavoidable evil, will make load shedding more necessary.

"The public is advised by Eskom to prepare for an increased likelihood of load shedding until these issues are fixed during the next six to 12 months."

Since January, there have been 155 days of load shedding due to the high number of unplanned outages, which has led to a significant reliance on open-cycle gas turbines and the combustion of millions of liters of diesel.

The Koeberg Power Station's Unit 1 will be shut down for normal maintenance on December 1; this will remove 920MW of generation capacity from the national grid.