“There was no reason,” she said in an interview. “They want to appoint someone else.”

Breytenbach has won support from prominent figures in the energy industry for a program that was seen as one of the world’s best in attracting rapid investment in solar and wind power.

“Since 2011 she has overseen 209 billion rand ($15 billion) investment in 112 renewable energy projects,” said Antony Eberhard, a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s task team for the struggling national power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., in a Twitter posting. “Zero corruption.”