by Dr. Ian McRae, chief executive of Eskom, 1985
to 1994
First edition, published by EE Publishers (Pty) Ltd, March 2006,
ISBN: 0-620-35793-2
Dr. McRae oversaw the construction of
Eskom’s current fleet of power stations, as head of its Central Generation
Undertaking from 1971 to 1977, head of operations from 1977 to 1980, head of
engineering from 1980 to 1984, and chief executive from 1985 to 1994. This
construction included all the major Eskom “six-pack” coal-fired power stations
(Kriel, Matla, Duvha, Tutuka, Lethabo, Mathimba, Kendal and Majuba), the
hydro-electric power stations (Gariep, Vanderkloof and Cahora Bassa), the pumped
storage power stations (Drakensburg and Palmiet), and the Koeberg nuclear power
station
in South Africa.
At a time when “sabotage” at Koeberg has recently
been suggested in certain quarters, it is indeed enlightening to read the
chapter entitled “Koeberg and other plant sabotage”, by the man who, as head of
operations, was responsible for Eskom’s security at the time of an incident in
1982, where four limpet mines exploded in well-chosen areas within Koeberg,
including the reactor head of Unit 2, at a cost of some R500-million. Similarly,
the chapter entitled “Shortage of capacity” shows how many of today’s problems
have been overcome in the past.
The book covers the period from 1947, when he
joined Eskom as an 18 year old apprentice fitter, to his retirement as chief
executive in 1994. It also deals with his subsequent success in establishing the
National Electricity Regulator (NER), where he served as its first chairman and
CEO from 1994 to 1997. Dr. McRae’s long career in Eskom spanned the rapid
growth of the company in the period 1950 – 1980, the downturn of the 1980 –
1990s, and social change in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where his role
formed a valuable part of the Eskom legacy.
This book is a valuable complement to “A Symphony
of Power – the Eskom story” by Allen Morgan, who succeeded Dr. McRae as chief
executive at Eskom. It gives first-hand insights into the once-mooted
privatisation of Eskom, Dr. McRae’s “electricity-for-all” electrification
initiative (the world’s biggest at the time), the establishment of the southern
African power grid, the restoration of the Cahora Bassa HVDC scheme, and the
Koeberg licensing issues.
A key theme of the book is leadership, and in
particular the kind of leadership Dr. McRae practiced at Eskom during its phases
of both growth and then downsizing. This was essentially one of empowering
people within a framework of a clear and inspiring vision. There is no doubt
that his integrity, credibility, drive, inherent humility and care for people,
also profoundly helped to motivate Eskom staff during many difficult times. In
addition, his tenacity of purpose and commitment as a team player enabled Eskom
to achieve its strategic goals in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and to survive
unscathed through the political transition period of South Africa.
His remarkable courage was revealed in his
meetings with the ANC in 1988, his promotion of equal opportunity during the
height of the apartheid era, and his legendary “electricity-for-all”
electrification campaign. These initiatives, and others, helped Eskom pre-empt
and adapt to the social changes of the 1990s. Dr. McRae brought great credit to Eskom and South
Africa through his activities in the World Energy Council (WEC) and the World
Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). The leadership given to these
organisations, together with his activities in SADC, are accurately
and modestly described.
The book is also about McRae the man – his
strength and weaknesses, his sense of serving others and Eskom. This is thus the
story of a person who has served his fellow man, his company and his country
with distinction and humility, using his God-given skills of leadership. In
several places in the book, Dr. McRae mentions how being a good mentor is one of
the attributes of the outstanding leader. Having benefited himself from good
mentorship, Dr. McRae helped to establish the strong culture of mentorship that
exists in Eskom today.
Dr. McRae deals objectively and generously with
his relationships with his staff, colleagues and political masters named in the
book, including his relationship with industrialist and businessman, John Maree,
who was chairman of Eskom during these turbulent times. The book is well written
and readable, and contains a good selection of historic pictures made possible
by the author’s as well as the Eskom archives. The book encapsulates elements of the history of
Eskom not previously revealed – insights into critical technical problems,
business drivers, political pressures and strategic imperatives. The book will
be fascinating to those who worked within or knew the Eskom of the McRae era. It
is a unique chronicle of Eskom’s history, and overall, it is both uplifting and
inspiring. The book has 180 pages, divided into 33 compact
chapters, which contributes to its readability, and is published with hard cover
and over 30 full colour pictures. The foreword is given by Reuel Khoza, chairman
of Nedbank, and formerly chairman of Eskom at the time of Dr. McRae’s
retirement.
The book is available from EE Publishers and retails at
R230, including VAT and postage within South Africa.
A lifetime of service
Few Eskom employees can
claim to have left footprints anywhere near as deep as those left by Ian McRae.
His 47-year service record is bound to stay unrivalled for some time and it was
fitting that he should become the utility’s first-ever CEO.
“My whole career with
Eskom was so enriching and challenging,” says McRae. “I always felt blessed to
work for such a company and with such wonderful people. This is true of people
I have worked with at all levels.”
It would be fair to say
that McRae has Eskom in his blood, with his father also having served the
company, in its previous guise as the VFP. He used to take the young Ian to the
power stations at Simmerpan.
After school, McRae went
to study at university for a year, but his parents were unable to keep him
there. Having some knowledge of his father’s employers, McRae applied to the
VFP for an apprenticeship. He completed his fifth year and then applied for a
bursary from Iscor, as they were the only ones advertising bursaries at the time.
When he submitted his application to Eskom with a request for a recommendation,
Eskom decided that they did not want to lose his talents and the utility
decided to start awarding bursaries. McRae was one of the first recipients.
McRae completed his university
degree and a subsequent practical requirementse and from there decided that his
future would be intertwined with that of Eskom.
“My years as an apprentice
in the workshop later proved to be of value on many occasions, even as CEO, not
only in building relationships, but also in understanding the difficulties that
the company may be facing,” says McRae.
However, he was not
destined to stay at the bottom rung of the utility for any extended period. In
1961 he was appointed as station manager of Komati power station, which was
Eskom’s newest and largest power station at the time. His appointment at a
rather youthful 31 years of age raised an eyebrow or two.
“I never understood why I
qualified for the position, but I got offered it and I accepted. The next big
step came when I was appointed as the manager of the Central Generating
Undertaking. At the time, Eskom was divided up into a number of undertakings.
These undertakings were mainly involved in distribution, but some also had
their own generation functions, such as Natal and the Cape, in addition to the
Rand and Free State undertakings that had the most power stations.
“Government then decided
to bring all of these power stations together under the Central General
Undertaking. I was then invited to lead this undertaking, which was going to be
a big task, because the cultures in the various undertakings were vastly
different.
“After being appointed,
Jan Smith came to me and said that my first job is to meet with the other
managers and convince them to release their power stations to me. These
managers treasured their power stations. Smith called a meeting before I was
even properly informed of what my job would entail and told the other managers,
‘Ian has something to say to you’. There was quite a bit of resistance, but in
the end they knew it had to happen. It did place some pressure on me to make a
success of running these power stations.”
As a leader, McRae started
to read up as much about the topic as possible and created visions for the positions
that he held.

Dr McRae in front of the photograph that captures Eskom's visions and environmental responsibilities
“I always felt that the
best visions come from threats that you experience. One threat that I
identified is that we were going to battle to find sufficient skilled staff to
operate our power stations at various levels from our white population alone. I
went from power station to power station to talk to the staff before I went to
senior management. Most of the workers were okay with the promotion of black
staff into positions that were previously reserved for whites only. This started
the ball rolling with affirmative action in Eskom in the 70s.”
McRae is one of the few
people to have experienced Eskom during extended high growth and extended low
growth periods. With the utility’s move to its new office at Megawatt Park and
McRae’s promotion to head of operations in the early 70s, it was certainly in
high growth mode. McRae then progressed to head of engineering before finally
being appointed as the company’s first CEO in the early 80s.
This was a difficult time
for Eskom as it had just come through the second commission of enquiry, which
had made certain recommendations and changes. The political situation also did
little to help, with the country becoming increasingly isolated. In addition,
the biggest act of corporate fraud in the country’s history had just been
perpetrated by an Eskom employee who used the Nuclear Secrecy Act to transfer
money to a personal Swiss account. As a result, the chief executive of the
soon-to-be obsolete Electricity Supply Commission and the financial manager left
their positions, which again led to McRae being appointed into a position of
increased responsibility earlier than he would have expected. Again it was a
surprise in a company that had been dominated by Afrikaners in the top
positions.
“I went into the position
knowing that there were going to be changes as we moved to becoming a council
with members that were more representative of our customers, as well as getting
a new chairman. I also knew that the new council may have totally different views
from the old one. I did however realise that it was a great honour to be in
this position.”
A new chairman – John
Maree – entered the fold and he made it clear that Eskom would be moving from a
strong growth phase to a non-growth phase to make it more viable financially.
Together they developed the vision of turning Eskom into a top-performing
company, with the knowledge that government would take over operating control
if they were not successful. McRae, with his years of experience, was the
perfect person to make Maree familiar with the intricacies of the Eskom
culture. Together, they managed to turn around the perception of Eskom as a
non-performing company.
The next challenge that
McRae identified was the electrification of the townships, because he knew that
change would come and that it would soon become an Eskom imperative in any
event. He therefore met in secret with many representatives of black
communities to gather their input and compile a strong case for mass
electrification. He even met with members of the very-much banned ANC at the
time and took their answers to government, where the go-ahead for
electrification was given. Although the board was concerned about the political
implications, the go-ahead was eventually given to start electrification.
As was his wont, McRae
soon identified another threat and a vision to combat it. At the time, most of
South Africa’s neighbours were quite hostile to it and having seen the
redemptive power of electricity and its ability to bring people together, McRae
started to develop the vision of an integrated southern African power grid. Because
no countries were prepared to deal directly with the apartheid government,
McRae had to find roundabout ways of getting the vision off the ground, such as
relaying power from Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa generator via South Africa to the
Zimbabwean grid. These moves heralded the start of Eskom’s cross-border
collaborations and although they were pursued with varying levels of vigour
after McRae’s time, he can still be rightfully proud of these efforts. He still
believes that a southern African grid will be beneficial to both South Africa
and the region.
His message to current
Eskom leaders is that generation, transmission and distribution has to be
separated into separate companies for electricity supply to become truly
efficient and to allow independent producers to play a role.
McRae is one
of the few people to have experienced Eskom during extended high growth and
extended low growth periods
“I always felt
blessed to work for such a company and with such wonderful people”
– Ian McRae
“My years as
an apprentice in the workshop later proved to be of value on many occasions,
even as CEO”
“I always
felt that the best visions come from threats that you experience”
Quote from Dr McRae
"Eskom has a wonderful base which has been created over the years by real captains of the industry making, people who were bold in their decision making, people who were dedicated. South Africa can look forward to developing an industry of the future based on the past of Eskom. This applies not only South Africa, but the rest of Africa as well, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. It has been a challenging past and it is going to be a challenging future. And I just feel so personally honoured to have been able to be a part of that."
HONORARY DOCTORATE FOR IAN McRAE
Ian McRae was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering for his outstanding contribution to industry at the Faculty of Engineering's graduation ceremony at Wits University. He received the honorary degree in recognition of his efforts in the economic upliftment of South Africa and its neighbouring states and the improvement of the quality of life for the people of South Africa.
Ian McRae devoted more than 40 years to Eskom, starting as an apprentice fitter in 1947. He rose steadily through the ranks and has been closely involved with many important areas of development, particularly in the field of power generation. He is one of the foremost business leaders in the country and was nominated by the Sunday Times Business Times as one of the top five businessmen of 1989.
Presenting McRae for the honorary degree, Prof David Glasser, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering said: "McRae has a vivid vision that Southern Africa can become a growth centre of the world and that electricity has the potential to provide the platform for the economic upliftment of not only South Africa but also its neighbouring states. "To achieve this, he is ignoring the current political constrains and the resistance to the idea of economic cooperation with states to the north of our borders," said Prof Glasser.
"He is using his engineering back ground his managerial and negotiating talents and the infrastructure available to him at Eskom to clear the way towards and integrated subcontinental power grid".
Prof Glasser added that under McRae's leadership, Eskom was moving aggressively toward achieving the target of providing all South Africans with electricity. "McRae is an engineer who is continually championing new, innovative approaches to attain this end."
Ian McRae pictured the Faculty of Engineering's graduation ceremony
at Wits University