State-owned oil company PetroSA has placed its top three executives‚ including the CEO‚ on gardening leave due to poor performance‚ Business Day reported.

The three – CEO Nosizwe Nokwe-Macamo‚ CFO Lindiwe Mthimunye-Bakoro and acting VP of upstream operations Andrew Dippenaar – were this week given 24 hours to accept the leave request from the board or face suspension.

The move echoes that of Eskom‚ whose board under former chairperson Zola Tsotsi in March suspended its four most senior executives ahead of an investigation. After a court challenge‚ its former CEO Tshediso Matona left the utility‚ but the details of the probe have not yet been made public.