Within minutes of meeting Umgeni Water CEO Gugu Moloi (38) at the utility's drab Durban offices, I have been dished out a dose of motivational talk that seems to fuse the styles of televison icon Oprah Winfrey and US motivational speaker and writer Iyanla Vanzant.
This is not surprising, since Moloi's CV lists inspirational and motivational speaking as a special interest. She finished reading a book on creative entrepreneurship at 3 am, she tells me. This, she hopes, will help her develop Iman Africa, a company she set up some time ago to empower young women but has not had the time to get operational.
Moloi comes across as a serious person who juggles her time between work, family and reading inspirational books. She not only talks the talk; she gets things done. Within four years of taking control of Umgeni Water, a R2,5bn, wholesale water supplier to most of KwaZulu Natal, she has turned around the utility and restrained it from abusing its monopoly. Ripping off customers through high tariffs is no longer tolerated at Umgeni Water.
For this achievement, Moloi thanks her staff. She got the board to agree to pay 14th cheques for everyone. This could, arguably, have been seen as an extravagance and typical of state-owned utilities that tend to cash in for simply doing their jobs. Moloi, however, justifies it as acknowledgement of hard work and of going the extra mile.
Moloi, who is married and has three children, grew up in downtrodden Bulwer, near Pietermaritzburg. She was always among the top 10 performers in her class and was captain of the netball team. But she was not a prefect, she says, "because I was not good at toeing the line".
When Moloi arrived at Umgeni Water in April 2002, she found an ailing utility with baggage accumulated when it outsourced its treasury function to Specialised Outsourcing, which was founded by controversial self-styled serial entrepreneur Dave King and accused of not delivering. There were also allegations of corruption related to that contract. Jittery executives and board members were under fire.
Confronted by hefty losses, issues of corruption, irate customers and a pending court case, Moloi found herself in the deep end of a troubled organisation that had been publicly disgraced over the Specialised Outsourcing saga. But she seemed cut out to fix Umgeni's woes and her efforts have paid off.
"I got the job on merit," she stresses. "I applied for it. I do not have political connections and was never really involved in politics."
Moloi has a law degree from the University of Natal and an MA in town and regional planning. Before joining Umgeni Water, she was CEO of the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Unit, which seeks private-sector investment in infrastructure projects.
She sits on the FirstRand board and is involved in several state organisations.
Recalling her first day at Umgeni Water, she squirms. "It was strange. There was a board meeting and outside the building the unions were toyi-toying and saying I must sort out the corruption," she says.
To add to this, Specialised Outsourcing was suing the utility for millions it claimed were owed to it.
Moloi decided the best way to get going was to speak to all the staff and unions and try to understand the problems. Clearly, staff were demoralised and in the dark over the happenings at Umgeni Water. They were going through an ugly chapter that had to be put aside.
There were piles of paper and boxes with documents related to the court case and allegations of corruption. "When I looked at them, I realised I would not get to the truth about what had really happened at Umgeni Water," says Moloi.
But she knew what the real state of the organisation was and made sure that everyone else heard about it, too.
"I did what [Transnet] CEO Maria [Ramos] did - I told the minister, the portfolio committee, the customers and all the stakeholders what was going on."
There was a long consultation process and agreement that Umgeni Water needed to be restructured. Consequently, there were board changes and an overhaul of the executive leadership.
Like Transnet's, Umgeni Water's balance sheet was restructured and a bond had to be repurchased to sort out its finances. The organisation reduced debt to manageable levels. Assets that did not fit into the core business were removed, such as a project in Nigeria.
There was trepidation among staff when Moloi took office.
She says one manager recently told her: "When you started here, I hated you. I did not know whether I would still have a job. Now we are thankful."
Moloi now has to provide infrastructure and work closely with municipalities that distribute water to ensure that the vision for efficient and affordable water delivery is on track.
She is proud that tariff increases, once as high as 40%, have trickled down to inflation levels and now stand at 4,5%.
Moloi points out that water delivery faces the same challenges as electricity. In both cases, municipalities are responsible for delivery to households and businesses and they set the tariffs for consumers. The system is not ideal without regulatory bodies to guide tariffs and levels of service provision.
Moloi firmly believes that water delivery needs a strong regulator. But this is ultimately a national government policy decision.
Undoubtedly, Moloi is using her motivational skills to lobby for it.
