Dr H J van der Bijl - Chairman
At the first board meeting held in Cape Town after the establishment of the Commission on 1st March 1923, it was decided that the Commission’s Head Quarters should be in Johannesburg and temporary offices were acquired in what was then known as Hofman’s Building at 84 Marshall Street. This caused some surprise as the Electricity Control Board had its headquarters in Pretoria and it was assumed that ESCOM would also operate from there.
Dr van der Bijl the first Chairman of ESCOM however saw the matter in another light. To him it was of the utmost importance that the public at large should get to know ESCOM as an undertaking which, although launched by the Government, was in no way a state undertaking or part of a government department although at the time it fell under the Department of Mines and industries, but an independent technical enterprises which conducted its affairs on sound business principles.
A year later the Commission moved to Electricity House 82 Marshall Street Johannesburg
