Eskom has appointed former financial journalist Sikhonathi Mantshantsha as its spokesperson.

Mantshantsha replaces Khulu Phasiwe who resigned at the end of April last year.

According to a statement released by Eskom, Mantshantsha would commence his duties at the beginning of February.

He joined the Daily Maverick in July last year as associate director. Before that Mantshantsha was the deputy editor at the Financial Times.

Eskom new CEO Andre de Ruyter told the power utility staff today that Mantshantsha would be heading their media division.

“I am happy to announce Sikhonathi Mantshantsha will be joining the Eskom team, in Corporate Affairs, as our media liaison,” said De Ruyter.

“His appointment is a firm step from our side to strengthen our efforts to improve Eskom’s image, to add another layer of success to our media response strategies in order to be more direct and proactive when engaging with media and other interest groups.”

Mantshantsha is well known for his cutting criticism of the way Eskom business had been handled by its executives over the years.Last month Mantshantsha was critical of President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision to cut short his trip to Egypt in order to attend to load-shedding crisis that had hit the country.

He told Ramaphosa that he had “come back for nothing” as the president was addressing the media following his meeting with Eskom executives, public enterprise minister Pravin Gordhan and its now former board chairperson Jabu Mabuza.

This is the meeting where Ramaphosa was told that there would be no load-shedding until January 13 this year.

Mabuza offered to resign when Eskom had to implement load-shedding before the promised date.

Deputy President David Mabuza lambasted the board, saying they had misled Ramaphosa who in turn misled the nation when he made the announcement that there would be no load-shedding before January 13.