Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati has called former Standard Bank executive Lincoln Mali one of the unsung heroes behind the power utility’s turnaround, MyBroadband reported.
Nyati made the comments in a post on X. He said he spoke with Mali at the Venture Capital Partners anniversary event. The two discussed Eskom’s engaged board model and how it shaped the recovery.
Nyati described Mali as “the spiritual leader who reminded the generation team of their greatness when few wanted to be associated with Eskom.”
The praise relates to July 2023. At that time, South Africa had just come out of Stage 5 load-shedding. Mali gave a motivational talk to the Eskom generation team.
Mali wrote about that day on LinkedIn. “Mteto Nyati and the Eskom board had taken on a Herculean task: turn Eskom around and bring the light back,” he wrote.
“I’m not an engineer, but I could show up. That’s Ubuntu: reaching out to strangers in their hour of need,” Mali wrote. He said he offered Nyati a conversation with Bheki Nxumalo and his generation leaders.
Mali said he spoke to some of the country’s finest engineers, who carried a heavy weight on their shoulders.
“We talked, as fellow leaders and South Africans, about leading through turbulence, pain, and anxiety, and about the standards they had set for themselves,” Mali said. “When Eskom reached 100 days without load-shedding, they invited me back.”
The Eskom generation team gave Mali the Ubuntu Thought Leadership Award 2026 for inspiring its leaders.
Mali was born in KwaZakhele township in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, in February 1968. His father, Mzwandile Mali, played rugby for Cowan High School and later for the Orientals Rugby Football Club.
Mali played rugby at Mzontsundu Secondary School. He was expelled in 1985 because of his anti-apartheid activism, which also saw him in and out of jail.
He later finished matric at Newell Public High School in Port Elizabeth. He then studied at Rhodes University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Politics and an LLB in 1992.
At Rhodes, he was President of the Black Student Movement. He was also National Vice President of the South African Students Congress.
From September 1994, Mali served as spokesperson for the Ministry of Education. He then joined the Banking Council as a general manager in July 1997.
He started at Standard Bank in September 2001 as a senior manager for corporate banking. He rose through several senior roles over the next two decades.
As director for customer channels, he managed 13,345 staff across South Africa. He later led the bank’s operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Angola and Namibia.
Mali was head of group card and emerging payments from January 2016 to May 2021. He also chaired Diners Club South Africa from May 2017 until May 2021.
After leaving Standard Bank, he served as CEO of Net1 Southern Africa. He is now President of the Association of South African Payment Providers.
Mali is also the Southern African CEO of Lesaka Technologies. Nyati said Mali helped turn that company around through his passion for financial inclusion and integrity.
Source: this article is based on reporting by MyBroadband. Image: MyBroadband. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.