Exxaro’s BEE move ‘an insult to Eskom’
Eskom’s acting CE Matshela Koko takes heated reaction to Twitter as empowerment experts back his position
Eskom’s acting CE Matshela Koko has taken coal miner Exxaro Resources’ plan to ditch its 50%-plus black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership structure for 30% black ownership as an insult to the state-owned power company. Koko responded heatedly on Twitter on Tuesday to Exxaro’s news, tweeting that Exxaro had decided "to show Eskom a finger instead of radically transforming and has no decency to even engage on this matter". He also tweeted that "radical economic transformation is dealt a heavy blow by Exxaro". For the past two years, Eskom has implemented a policy of only signing new long-term contracts with coal suppliers that are more than 50% black-owned. But coal analysts have warned that it may run out of coal in future because of this policy as huge investments would require new entrants. Eskom consumes about 120-million tonnes of coal a year, worth about R45bn in 2016 that is now largely supplied by a handful of companies: Exxaro and multinationals like Anglo American, South3...
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