EDITORIAL: Tackle root of Eskom problem
SA’s electricity industry must be restructured if the sector is to thrive
When Eskom releases its annual financial statements on Wednesday, the indications are that it won’t be a pretty picture. But at least there might be a little more honesty now. A month or two ago, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown again repeated her claim that former CE Brian Molefe had turned the company around and put it on a sustainable footing. But last week, we heard from Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba that there is deep concern about the weakness of Eskom’s balance sheet and the company will need some "soft support" from government. What "soft support" means we shall have to wait to see. Eskom should still have plenty of loan guarantees on which it can draw and by February, it had used R218bn of the R350bn available to it. Since then, this would have increased to some degree with new borrowing. The credit-rating downgrade in April could also have caused the repricing of some loans. Eskom still has a lot more borrowing to do to complete its capital-build programme. Medupi ...
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