Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Friday, September 25, 2026, that South Africa has reappointed Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati for an additional three-year term. The state is keeping its hand on the country’s power utility, and the decision lands after a notable turnaround in power availability during Nyati’s tenure.
The move extends Nyati’s role at Eskom, the state power utility, as the government continues to back its current leadership. That’s the core of it: the same apparatus that presides over the grid is also deciding who stays in charge of it. For ordinary people, power supply is not an abstract management story. It’s lights on, appliances working, daily life holding together. When the utility falters, the cost lands below.
Who Holds the Switch
Ramokgopa announced the reappointment himself. The government is not stepping away from Eskom; it’s doubling down on the people already running it. Nyati’s additional three-year term keeps the board chair in place at a moment the state is eager to present stability as proof of success.
The article says the decision comes after a notable turnaround in power availability during Nyati’s tenure. It also says power supply has improved sharply under his stewardship. Those are the facts the government wants attached to the announcement. The message is plain enough: keep the current leadership, keep the current arrangement, and call it continuity.
Who Pays When the Grid Fails
Eskom is described as the state power utility, which means the burden of its failures and its fixes sits inside a hierarchy built and managed from above. The article doesn’t describe public input, worker control, or community oversight. It describes a reappointment. One minister announces it. One board chair receives it. The rest of the country lives with the consequences.
That’s how these systems work. Decisions are made at the top, then sold downward as stability. When the supply improves, officials frame it as stewardship. When it collapses, ordinary people absorb the blackout, the disruption, and the waiting. The article points to a turnaround, but the structure remains the same: state control over a basic necessity.
Stability, According to the State
Ramokgopa’s announcement also shows how governments use improvement to reinforce the same leadership that presided over the utility. The reappointment extends Nyati’s role while the government continues to back Eskom’s current leadership. That’s not a break with the old order. It’s the old order congratulating itself for functioning a little better than before.
The article gives no sign of any broader public process around the decision. No workers’ council. No community assembly. No mutual aid network stepping in where the utility failed. Just the state, the board, and the minister’s announcement. The machinery of power remains intact, even when it’s trying to look competent.
Nyati’s three-year extension now ties his name to the turnaround the government wants to claim. Ramokgopa’s announcement makes that link official. The state keeps the utility close, keeps the leadership in place, and presents the result as stability. For everyone else, it’s still a system where access to power runs through the hands of authority first.