YESTERDAY'S announcement that Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga had resigned was part of a move by the board to push him out of the electricity utility.

YESTERDAY'S announcement that Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga had resigned was part of a move by the board to push him out of the electricity utility.

Widespread reports, including what was purportedly an internal memo to staff, said Maroga had resigned. Eskom spokesperson Andrew Ertzinger even told Sowetan that Maroga had offered to resign last week and that the board accepted his resignation.

But a letter written by Maroga to the board last Thursday has revealed that the electricity utility head had no intention to resign.

In the letter, Maroga tells the board that he had a comprehensive strategy about the direction Eskom should take to deal with its current crisis. "I have not offered to resign, and I am not offering to resign," wrote Maroga in the letter.

Yesterday morning, Sapa quoted Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell as having told staff members that Maroga had resigned.

The Black Management Forum said state-owned enterprises were being turned into "slaughterhouses for black professionals like Maroga". "We reiterate ... that pushing experienced Africans to leave these positions is aimed at destroying institutional memory and experiences of Africans in the economy so that they remain at the bottom of the economic pyramid," it said.

Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan has admitted a breakdown of relations between Maroga and his board.