Eskom chair Mteto Nyati accepts honorary fellowship of engineering academy
The SAAE recognition follows a June resolution by its fellows and credits engineering-led renewal at the utility.
Eskom board chairman Mteto Nyati has accepted an invitation to become an Honorary Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering, the utility announced on Friday, 28 August 2026.
The recognition follows a resolution by SAAE fellows at their Annual General Meeting on 30 June 2026, acting on a recommendation from the academy’s executive committee. The SAAE is an independent body of engineering professionals affiliated with the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences, and works on the country’s technological welfare, infrastructure capability and long-term competitiveness. Honorary Fellowship is among its highest forms of recognition.
Nyati accepted the honour on behalf of the utility’s board, executives and employees rather than himself.
“I accept this Honorary Fellowship not as a personal accolade, but on behalf of the Eskom Board, our executives and, above all, the thousands of employees who made the turnaround possible. They had the answers long before anyone was prepared to listen.”
He described the award as recognition of disciplined engineering and accountability rather than a miracle, and said the utility’s recovery came from returning to first principles and treating the people closest to the problem as partners.
“Eskom is an engineering company,” he said. “When we returned to first principles and treated the people closest to the problem as partners, the lights stayed on. I carry this honour in their name.”
What the utility says the record shows
According to Eskom, the award arrives at a defining moment in its history. Under the board’s governance and strategic oversight, supported by executive leadership and employees, the utility says it has achieved one of the most significant turnarounds of South Africa’s democratic era.
The announcement states that Eskom has restored operational performance, strengthened its financial position and implemented structural improvements that have enhanced governance, organisational effectiveness and execution discipline. It says these have repositioned the utility from a period of crisis and recovery to one focused on strengthening resilience, advancing the unbundling of the business and creating enduring value for South Africa.
The statement gives no further figures. It does not set out generation availability, debt levels or a timeline for the unbundling, and it does not quantify the turnaround beyond the claims above.
Why an engineering academy’s nod carries weight
Honorary Fellowship, as the academy frames it, reflects professional achievement and a commitment to engineering excellence, innovation and evidence-based solutions to national challenges. For a utility whose product is measured in megawatts and whose failures are measured in stages of load shedding, that is a register worth noting. Eskom’s own framing of its recovery is engineering-led rather than financial, and the academy’s recognition is the first outside endorsement of that framing to appear in the announcement.
The statement credits the board, executive leadership and employees collectively, and Eskom congratulated its chairman on the recognition.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd published the announcement at https://www.eskom.co.za/eskom-chairman-mteto-nyati-accepts-south-african-academy-of-engineering-honorary-fellowship.
