Former Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe dies

Khulu Phasiwe

South Africa – Former Eskom spokesperson and prominent corporate communications specialist Khulu Phasiwe has died, with tributes pouring in from colleagues and organisations in South Africa’s communications sector.

Phasiwe died on Sunday while serving as head of corporate affairs and communications at Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS), according to TimesLIVE. The African Media & Communication Forum (AMCF) paid tribute to his contribution to the communications and media industry.

“We honour the life, legacy and invaluable contribution of Khulu Phasiwe to the media and communications sector in Africa,” the AMCF said.

Phasiwe became a familiar face in South African media during his decade at Eskom, where he spent five years as the power utility’s national spokesperson.

SABC News reported in 2019 that he had joined Eskom in 2008 and left the utility after 10 years.

Reflecting on his time at Eskom, Phasiwe described the experience as extremely challenging.

“The difficulty was that our problems never end. Almost every day, every week there’s a new thing coming so it was very difficult,” he said at the time, according to SABC News.

He also famously described working at the embattled power utility as being “tantamount to being in a war zone”, as Eskom faced load-shedding, financial pressures and allegations of state capture.

After leaving Eskom, Phasiwe returned to the public sector and was appointed spokesperson for the Public Protector’s office in 2024. EWN reported that he brought more than two decades of experience in financial journalism and corporate communications to the role.

He later moved to ATNS, where he continued to serve as a senior communications executive.

Phasiwe was still active professionally in the days before his death. Recent ATNS-related reporting quoted him on the organisation’s response to a cyberattack and on concerns raised by the auditor-general over the entity’s financial controls.

His death marks the loss of a well-known figure who spent years communicating some of South Africa’s most difficult public-sector stories to the media and the public.

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