Eskom has appointed South African Institute of Chartered Accountants CEO Freeman Nomvalo as Chief Restructuring Officer, the power utility announced on Tuesday.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says he has been seconded from SAICA to take over the role. Gordhan said he would be tasked with among other things "optimising eskom debt".

The announcement was made at an Eskom earnings report briefing in Johannesburg.

One of the CRO's key roles will be overseeing the unbundling of the debt-laden power utility into three entities – generation, distribution and transmission. He will work with Eskom's board and management to carry out the recommendations of the Presidential Task Team, appointed in 2018 last to advise government on interventions to save Eskom, including how best to fund the debt-laden utility.



Eskom, which has a debt burden of about R440bn, has been allocated R23bn for operational expenses in the current financial year.

On Tuesday last week, meanwhile, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni tabled a special appropriations bill to grant it an allocation of R59bn over the next two years.