The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) has agreed to a request from the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, and the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, for SAICA to assist the South African government with the restructuring of its Eskom business through the establishment of the office of the Chief Restructuring Officer. SAICA will put together a team of specialists lead by SAICA CEO, Freeman Nomvalo.  

SAICA agreed to the request based on the importance to South Africa and its economy to avoid a possible downgrade at Eskom, which could result in a sovereign downgrade. SAICA has assisted government with similar requests in the past, particularly the multi-million rand programme assisting the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) with resourcing both finance and HR functions.

The Board members of SAICA have agreed to assist government in the following manner:

  • SAICA is to assist government with a programme aimed at reorganising the operational and funding structures of Eskom for the purpose of making it profitable while at the same time meeting the country’s energy needs;
  • This project will be part of SAICA’s Nation Building initiative;
  • For this purpose, a team of appropriately qualified resources will be sourced by SAICA from its membership base and elsewhere as appropriate;
  • The project will be led by the SAICA CEO who will spend some of his time on this project, which is currently estimated to conclude within a period of six months;
  • The resources SAICA secures will be funded by the Department of Public Enterprises and National Treasury.