South Africa Renews Eskom Chair Mteto Nyati's Term After Power Supply Gains

South Africa's government has extended the term of Eskom board chairman Mteto Nyati by three years, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa announced on Friday, pointing to a marked recovery in the state utility's power supply.

Nyati took the helm in 2023, a period when Eskom was enforcing near-daily outages that weighed on economic growth and fuelled widespread public frustration. The utility has since recorded more than 490 consecutive days without load shedding.

"If it ain't broken, why fix it?" Ramokgopa said at a press conference, explaining that the cabinet had concluded Nyati was the right person to carry the work forward. His renewed term begins on 1 November, after his current three-year mandate was due to end in October.

The minister also highlighted Eskom's financial turnaround, noting that the former state monopoly posted a second straight profit in the 2026 financial year. The utility has relied on repeated government bailouts in the past, putting pressure on public finances.

Ramokgopa said there would be no further bailouts and ruled out double-digit electricity tariff increases. "We have come out of a period of darkness, we have reached a point of inflection, and we're entering a new terrain," he said, adding that Eskom should now help create conditions for investment, industrial growth and new participants in the electricity market.