Jabu Mabuza (4 February 1958 – 16 June 2021) was a South African businessman and investor. He was chairman of the

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. It was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) and was also known by its Afrikaans name Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie (EVKOM). Eskom repre ...

board."New Eskom board announced - Jabu Mabuza named as new chairperson"
''

Mail & Guardian The ''Mail & Guardian'' is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, local arts, music and popular cultu ...

'', 20 January 2018"South Africa names Jabu Mabuza as Eskom chairman in board shake-up"
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

'', Nqobile Dludla, 20 January 2018"Busa president Jabu Mabuza awarded honorary doctorate"
, '' The Citizen'', 7 May 2017 He was appointed the chairman of

in January 2018."Eskom's new chair is a man of 'unimpeachable integrity'"
''

'', Lisa Steyn, 21 January 2018

Early life and education

Jabulane Mabuza was born in February 1958 in the town of

Waterval Boven Waterval Boven (officially known as Emgwenya) is a small town situated on the edge of the Escarpment on the banks of the Elands River above the 75m Elands Falls on the railway line from Pretoria to Maputo in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Hence the n ...

, South Africa. His family was later forcibly resettled in White River on

trust land Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

, and Mabuza lived alternatively with his two grandmothers. He later went to live with an aunt in

Daveyton Daveyton is a township in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality of Gauteng in South Africa. It borders Etwatwa to the north-east, Springs to the south and Benoni to the south-west. The nearest town is Benoni, which is approximately 18 kilome ...

. While in junior

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

, Mabuza was expelled for being caught in the 1976 student protests in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

. He graduated in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

and from 1981 until 1982 attended the

University of Limpopo The University of Limpopo is a university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by the merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA). These previous institutions for ...

Career

In 1980 he became a

clerk of the court A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court, administer oaths to witn ...

at what was then called the Department of Bantu Affairs. He began driving taxis for tuition funds while in Daveyton, later becoming a taxi owner. Also in the late 1980s he helped found the Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services, becoming the organization's CEO in 1990. Mabuza was the group CEO of Tsogo Sun Holding. On 20 January 2018, South Africa's President

Cyril Ramaphosa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician who is currently serving as the fifth democratically elected president of South Africa. Formerly an anti-apartheid activist, trade union leader, and ...

appointed Mabuza as the new chairman of Eskom, a state-owned power utility company. On 29 July 2019, Jabu Mabuza was appointed Acting CEO of ESKOM, replacing the resigned Phakamani Hadebe at the struggling State Energy utility.

Personal life

Mabuza met his future wife, Siphiwe, in the 1970s while on a train to

. They had three children. He died of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on 16 June 2021, aged 63.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mabuza, Jabulane 1958 births 2021 deaths South African businesspeople People from Emakhazeni Local Municipality Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa