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New Leader at the Helm of South Africa’s Embattled Power Utility

South Africa’s state power utility appointed an interim chief executive, two days after the early departure of its former boss and as the company struggles to reduce record outages. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. appointed Chief Financial Officer Calib Cassim as interim CEO with immediate effect, it said in a statement on Friday. He will lead the company until further notice, it said. The South African minister who oversees state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. accused its former Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter of spending too much time promoting a transition to green energy and paying inadequate attention to fixing its broken coal-burning plants. De Ruyter spent three turbulent years at the helm of Eskom, during which he struggled to end rolling blackouts that have crippled the economy or get its shaky finances back on track. He abruptly left the company this week after giving a television interview in which he accused unidentified members of the governing African National Congress of stealing from the utility.

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