MEA 2017 South Africa Awards

4 MEA MARKETS / APRIL 2017 , Eskom is a leading South African electricity company supplying around 45%of the electricity for the whole of Africa. We profile the firm to find out more and explore the secrets behind its success. Best African Electricity Company 2017 Established in 1923, Eskom generates approximately 95% of the electricity used in South Africa and approximately 45% of the electricity used in Africa. As such, the firm is now the world’s eleventh-largest power utility in terms of generating capacity, ranking ninth in terms of sales, and boasting the world’s largest dry-cooling power station. In order to ensure that it continues to succeed and offer its clients the very highest standards of service, Eskom’s mandate is to provide electricity in an efficient and sustainable manner, including its generation, transmission, and distribution and sales. Eskom is a critical and strategic contributor to the South African government’s goal of security of electricity supply in the country as well as economic growth and prosperity. Sharing knowledge and understanding of the vital role that the firm plays in South Africa, in 2016 “The Eskom Journey”, a television documentary series on Soweto TV presented by veteran media personality Tim Modise. This 13-part, 24-minute documentary series uniquely showcases the role that Eskom plays in the lives of every South African and the region at large. This informative and educational series is designed to give viewers insights into the Eskom business that they might otherwise not be aware of. The series covers pertinent subjects such as public safety, electricity theft, non-payment, cable theft, illegal connections, vandalism, power outages, split and smart metering system, illegal pre-paid vouchers, meter by-passing and tampering, Eskom Research, testing and development, innovation, free basic electricity , inclining block tariffs, Eskom foundation and other key issues through story telling interviews with Eskom staff and customers as well as expertly narrated content by presenter Tim Modise. Due to the vital nature of its activities and the issues of greenhouse gases and oil consumption, Eskom has integrated sustainable development issues into decision-making for many years. Given that its sector is long term in nature and that many decisions have implications for decades, it is vital that the firm take robust and responsible decisions. As such, sustainability at Eskom refers to providing affordable energy and related services through the integration and consideration of economic development, environmental quality and social equity into business practices in order to continually improve performance and underpin development. This allows the company to take a long-term view and ensure that the scope of its work covers all relevant elements, assesses the practicality of implementation and includes issues such as technology development and deployment, quality, risk, safety and skills development. To ensure the relevance of our sustainability strategy, workshops were held with the Exco sustainability and safety subcommittee and board sustainability committee during the first quarter of 2009. These were aimed at reviewing recent developments, both locally and internationally, initiating a review of sustainable development in Eskom, related strategies and addressing focus areas into the future. While the existing sustainability strategy created in 2004 is still valid, these principles have been revised to ensure alignment with our long-term strategic business priorities1 and support of our reframing principles, while addressing short-term priorities. Sustainability is a vital part of Eskom’s work, as is ethics, and therefore the firm is committed to the highest standard of ethical conduct in all its actions and decisions. Ethics in Eskom is about accomplishing preferred ethical behaviours by living the Eskom values through its Code of Ethics, complying with laws and regulations, and considering the interests of all stakeholders in its actions and decisions. Eskom’s processes and practices are based on good corporate governance practices, which are underpinned by the ethical values of responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency. To ensure that its ethics are never compromised and it always SA170004 offers clients the most ethical options possible, the firm has established an ethics office within its Corporate Governance Department to maintain an ethics programme within the Eskom, which promotes ethical behaviour within the workplace through the development and implementation of ethical standards, rules and frameworks for the organisation, and by providing an ethics advisory service in the form of a helpline, as well as ethics training to employees and directors. The firm’s programme is also externally focussed, encouraging anyone acting on behalf of Eskom or conducting business with Eskom to commit to the highest standard of ethical conduct in all actions and decisions. As part of this drive towards ethical electricity supply, staying ahead of the latest industry developments and ensuring that it is constantly complaint with the latest regulations and legislation is crucial for Eskom. The Board is responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership, ensuring good corporate governance and ethics, determining policy, agreeing on performance criteria and delegating the detailed planning and implementation of policy to the Executive Management Committee (EXCO). The Board meets quarterly and monitors management’s compliance with policy and its achievements against objectives. A structured approach is followed for delegation, reporting and accountability, which includes