Wanted: a "seasoned, intuitive leader", a "team player with political and media savvy" who can run a business of 40 000 employees with revenue of R136-billion.
That's the job of the CEO of Eskom, which is being advertised four months after the last CEO quit.
"Reporting to the chairman of the board of directors, the chief executive will be responsible for the effective leadership and financial management of the organisation," said the advert, run in the Business Times. The closing date for applications is March 20.
This is the new CEO's job:
Key areas of responsibility:
Pro-actively shape the future of Eskom
Develop and implement a vision and strategic direction to meet increasing electricity demands
Create an ethos of excellence and continued improvement in the provision of the highest levels of customer service
Key attributes sought:
A seasoned, intuitive leader
Team player with political and media savvy
Applicants also need 20 years of experience and must have managed "a complex industrial environment with at least 20 000 employees and an annual turnover in excess of R5-billion". And they must be "strong" in managing "complex stakeholder relationships".
The last CEO, Brian Molefe, quit on November 11, 2016 with effect from January 1, days after trying to explain away his alleged connections with the controversial Gupta family, following damning claims in the Public Protector's State of Capture report that he'd visited the Gupta family's mansion in Saxonwold, Johannesburg. There was a shebeen near there, Molefe said at the time, giving rise to endless jibes about a mythical "Saxonwold Shebeen". Molefe started a new career as a Member of Parliament on February 23.
On November 30, Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown announced that Matshela Koko, the Eskom group executive for generation, would be the acting CEO from December 1. At the same time, Brown said she had asked the Eskom board "to immediately start the process to appoint a permanent group CEO", saying "this process needs their urgent attention".
Molefe said at the time that he was leaving in the interests of Eskom and the public.
Molefe called the report incomplete and prepared in haste and that "'observations' made in the report relating to, inter alia, my conduct, are in material respects inaccurate, based on part-facts or simply unfounded".
Molefe said that harm had been done to his own reputation and that of Eskom but that he was confident of being able to clear he name "when the time comes" but in the meantime, he had decided, "in the interests of good corporate governance", to leave Eskom voluntarily.
"I wish to reiterate that this act is not an admission of wrongdoing on my part. It is rather what I feel to be the correct thing to do in the interests of the company and good corporate governance."