Cabinet mulls financial support for Eskom

Friday, March 29, 2019

Cabinet says further financial support is being considered for Eskom.

In a statement issued on Thursday after the last meeting under the current administration, Cabinet said it dealt with the financial situation of Eskom.

The power utility faces a R420 billion debt burden.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Cabinet noted that electricity generation has been stable this week with a low risk of load-shedding. However, there are still a high number of unplanned outages that create a disruptive effect on the overall system.

Deputy President David Mabuza reported to Cabinet on developments regarding Eskom and electricity constraints.

“Good progress has since been made in acquiring sufficient coal and diesel supplies, and with water reserves at pumped storage stations at hydro-electricity plants,” noted Cabinet.

Meanwhile, the Technical Review Panel that was appointed by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Eskom Board on 4 March 2019 will finish some of its work by early next week.

“This will assist Eskom and government to put in place a more rigorous programme of power plant maintenance, which will help stabilise the generation system over the next few weeks and months,” Cabinet said.

It commended Eskom management and staff for their efforts to provide stable, consistent and reliable energy supply.

Cabinet appealed to South Africans to cooperate and come up with new ideas – as well as energy-saving practices that were applied in the past – to reduce the demand for electricity. These include switching off geysers, swimming pool pumps and lights that are not in use.

“Further progress on Eskom and electricity generation, as indicated by the Minister of Public Enterprises, will be provided within the next week,” said Cabinet. - SAnews.gov.za