YLS 2026 Dan Marokane - Leadership: Driving a High Performance, Ethical Culture

Youth Leadership Summit 2026 Dan Leseja Marokane is Group Chief Executive (GCE) of Eskom Holdings SOC Limited, a 100% state-owned company with more than 40 000 employees. Eskom generates close to 90% of the energy supplied to a wide range of customers in South Africa and the region, by transforming inputs from the natural environment, such as coal, nuclear fuel, diesel, kerosene, water, and wind into energy. Eskom has a total of 30 power stations with a nominal capacity of 46 788MW. Dan is a seasoned turnaround expert, a charismatic and inspirational leader, with a proven track record of disciplined execution in operational, strategic, and change leadership roles in large organisations. He has led operations across the oil, gas, power/energy and manufacturing sectors where he has overseen procurement budgets of more than R100 billion and capex budgets of R60 billion annually, achieving cashflow improvements of R3 billion over a two-year period and facilitating asset disposals of R6,5 billion. Prior to taking the helm at Eskom, Dan led staff complements of up to 35 000 people. His return to Eskom is preceded by a stint between 2010 and 2015. During that tenure, he was tasked with stabilising Eskom’s coal supply function, following the first occurrences of loadshedding in 2008. The remit of his function was the operational execution of the coal procurement strategy, focused on quality and adherence to the coal supply schedule. He joined Tongaat Hulett as an executive in January 2018 and carried out various responsibilities as the organisation embarked on a turnaround journey. He was appointed to the Tongaat Hulett Board on 18 November 2019. Dan acted as interim CEO in February 2023, early into the company’s voluntary business rescue process, where he focused on ensuring that, while a financial plan to solve the company’s debt burden was being considered, the four operating entities across Southern Africa (South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana) continued to show improvement in their operational excellence glide path, thus demonstrating the value of the business. After his departure from Eskom in March 2015, and before joining Tongaat Hulett, Dan provided advisory services across the energy value chain. He partnered with clients, capacitating them in driving strategic growth and change projects, at CEO and board level. Dan holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering (UCT), an MSc Petroleum Eng (London), and an MBA (UCT GSB). He is passionate about people, helping them realise their inherent value and full potential, which is critical to driving performance.