South Africa: Controversial DG appointed to Department of Energy

Energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has appointed Thabane Zulu as the new director-general of the Department of Energy (DoE), replacing Wolsey Barnard. Zulu has been director-general of the Department of Human Settlements (DoHS) since 2010. The DoE said in a statement that he “brings with him immeasurable experience as an astute civil servant”. Zulu joins as the responsibility for procuring new generation capacity becomes increasingly shared between Eskom and the DoE, through its independent power producer procurement programmes. The department will play an important role in any future nuclear power contracts, likely to be the largest public procurement in South African history.