Gordhan insists all is under control at Eskom

Following news of an earlier-than-expected R5 billion cash injection into Eskom, the public enterprises ministry and Treasury have insisted that the power utility is not on the brink of collapse despite the financial and operational damage it has suffered in recent years.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said to EWN: “We have the problem well under control. We understand [what the changes are] that need to be made. Eskom is not about to collapse. That it is in difficulty as a consequence of previous leadership we had before, and among those difficulties, are the operational difficulties, meaning providing enough energy.”

This comes after the DA accused Finance Minister Tito Mboweni of “secretly” handing parliament the details of a R17.652 billion “emergency” bailout of Eskom.

DA MP Alf Lees said Mboweni had needed to table the report according to public finance laws, but had allegedly attempted to sneak it to the relevant committee without much fanfare “to hide the true extent of this crisis”.

Lees said the first R5 billion from the total amount was already paid to Eskom on April 2.

In addition, Sunday Times reported this past weekend that recently retired Absa CEO Maria Ramos may be tasked with heading Eskom’s planned unbundling.

The unbundling is due to start in June and will involve establishing a subsidiary of Eskom Holdings with an independent board. The new company would own Eskom’s entire transmission network and power stations.

The split was envisioned in government policy documents written 20 years ago, but was finally announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2019 state of the nation address.

READ NEXT: Eskom cash scramble exposes ANC’s ‘failures and corruption’, says DA

(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho)

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