Eskom announced that Phakamani Hadebe will be leaving his position at the beginning of July this year due to health reasons.

JOHANNESBURG - There's much speculation about who will replace outgoing Eskom CEO Phakamani Hadebe following his resignation at the utility.

Economist Dawie Roodt has said he suspects the reason Hadebe resigned is because of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan's interference with the board.

"I am actually surprised that he lasted this long. With this kind of political interference, especially coming from Gordhan, if I were the CEO of Eskom, I would've resigned long go."

Eskom announced that Hadebe will be leaving his position at the beginning of July this year due to health reasons.

The parastatal is facing huge challenges including rising debt and electricity capacity issues.

Roodt said Hadebe's resignation puts the viability of the financially strapped state-owned entity in doubt.

"This is happening at a time when Eskom is totally financially unstable. The next couple of days will be extremely crucial for Eskom because we need electricity to keep this economy going

The Eskom board has not yet announced who will be Hadebe's successor.