Ramaphosa speaks on Eskom’s challenges and the hunt for the corrupt

Speaking at the sixth Financial Times Africa Summit on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted Eskom as one of the greatest challenges in the country’s economy.

Although Eskom had huge debt, liquidity problems, as well as operational challenges, Ramaphosa reassured that there were measures in place to overcome them.

“We have embarked on a process to strengthen governance, cut costs, improve revenue collection and increase energy availability,” he told leaders at the summit.

This follows his announcement of a clear plan for Eskom to be tabled in Cabinet on Wednesday.

“The paper detailing our approach towards Eskom will be tabled at Cabinet shortly. This is a very important exercise because it consolidates all the work by Eskom’s board, and the management, government departments and the various task teams advising government to turn around our electricity entity and energy markets.”

State capture

In fielding questions on Monday, he told leaders at the summit that steps had been taken to strengthen institutions that were otherwise weakened in the past by corruption. He said the country had been marred by corruption in both the private and public sectors, where a lot of money was syphoned from state coffers.

He maintains, however, that prosecuting authorities and crime intelligence agencies were working to bringing those complicit in corruption to book, “whether they were in the country or outside, we’ll follow them up”.

Land reform

He stated that expert advice was sought to ensure accelerated land reform in order to resolve “what is not only one of the great injustices of our colonial and apartheid history but an impediment to faster, more inclusive growth”.

He said the country had positioned itself as an investment destination of choice with strong core values such as good governance and growth-enhancement as well as retaining economic stability.

“Africa wants to deal with the rest of the world on its own terms. It wants to see an end to outside interference, particularly from those countries that continue to fuel conflict in African countries.”

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