South Africa’s power utility Eskom was allocated a US$16.4-billion bailout as part of efforts to restructure the energy sector in order to fire up the troubled economy, according to Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Speaking in the National Assembly when he presented his 2020 budget statement, Mboweni said his government would do “whatever it takes” to ensure stable electricity supply.
“As I said, it is our number one task,” the minister said, adding that he had allocated the amount over 10 years to achieve the restructuring of the electricity sector.”
The highly indebted power utility is also set to be divided into about four entities in order to make it more efficient, Ramaphosa said earlier this year in his State of the Nation’s Address.
Apart from being a victim of state capture (corruption), Eskom and its $30 billion debt have over the years fallen victim to negligence and lack of maintenance – leaving the power supplier failing to generate enough electricity, thereby having no choice but to institute annoying power cuts.
This, in turn, has led to businesses – large and small – struggling to make ends meet due to low productivity.
Mboweni’s placing Eskom as a priority patient that needs emergency treatment so it could to return to work soonest must have sounded like sweet music to the ears of South Africans in all walks of life.
NM/jn/APA