Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has ordered the Eskom board to rescind its appointment of Brian Molefe as CEO.
This was announced on Wednesday during a media briefing by an inter-ministerial committee on Eskom. Brown said she has asked the board to come up with two alternative candidates to the post.
Molefe was reinstated earlier this month after he left the parastatal under a cloud in November last year.
The ANC's national executive committee (NEC) had reportedly resolved that Eskom CEO Brian Molefe should be removed from his post.
A year into his tenure at Eskom, after the parastatal's interim results showed increasing costs and a decline in profits for the first half of 2016, Molefe was implicated in former public protector Thuli Madonsela's State Capture report. It revealed his close relationship with the Gupta family and their company Tegeta Exploration and Resources, which is a supplier of coal to Eskom.
Molefe returned to Eskom on May 15 following a dispute around his pension payout. This caused a nationwide outcry, with the ANC even calling for the recall of Brown's decision to have Molefe reappointed.
When news broke of his return to Eskom, the parastatal's board spokesman Khulani Qoma reportedly told media that Molefe did not resign last year; he took an early retirement.
Days after Molefe's return, the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund (EPPF) said that he was retrenched.
On May 22, the Mail and Guardian reported that Molefe and Brown have both filed affidavits claiming Molefe was on unpaid leave while he was a Member of Parliament.