Eskom needs political will and MTN urgency
As the usually relentless barrage of news around Eskom disappears amid the nationwide lockdown, there’s a rare quiet moment to take stock of improvements at the utility.
With the entrance of new Eskom CEO André de Ruyter at the beginning of 2020, there has been a concerted effort to improve the operational issues at the utility.
The system remains unreliable, but more honest messaging around the reality of persistent load-shedding has been broadly welcomed, as has a new method of maintenance. Coal stockpiles are adequate and the unbundling of the utility is also in the works and aimed for 2021.
But that can’t happen without the resolution of the political hot potato that is the restructuring of Eskom’s R450bn-plus debt.
On an investor call on Tuesday, Eskom management could provide little insight as to what, if anything, is being contemplated.
This is a mere continuation of stony silence over the work of the chief restructuring officer (CRO). The tenure of the CRO ended in January and many hoped his report on the reorganisation of Eskom’s debt would be made public in February.
But as Easter approaches, the contents of the report remain a mystery. Those holding out hope it will still come would do well to remember that reports from two Eskom task teams are yet to be released. But it is doubtful we need to see them.
In all likelihood these reports, if they ever see the light of day, will tell us something we already know. That is, the key obstacle in fixing the Eskom problem is the political will to do it.
DATA MUST FALL (NOW)
As the days go by, one has to wonder if the Competition Commission and SA’s second-largest operator, MTN, are actually going to come to an agreement any time soon about mobile data price cuts.
On Wednesday, MTN launched a range of new lowerpriced data bundles for customers through its mobile payments platform.
This news comes as MTN said in March it would drop data prices for its 30-day bundles by up to 50% from mid-April after pressure from the competition watchdog.
It appears MTN’s announcement on Wednesday may have been the result of added pressure from the government as an agreement with the commission is yet to be reached.
In a recent interview with Business Day, communications & digital technologies minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams indicated that the government had urged MTN to lower its prices sooner than the original April 15 date, to give South Africans more price relief for connectivity during the Covid-19 crisis.
When Vodacom became the first major operator to cut its data prices, commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said an agreement with MTN was expected within two weeks. It’s now two weeks since that initial two weeks was up.
In that time, Telkom and Cell C have managed to reach their own agreements with the commission.
The real question at this point is: what is the hold up? What exactly is stopping MTN and the commission from reaching an agreement?
For now, MTN looks to be on track to reduce prices by April 15 as originally intended, but as to when a final agreement will be reached, that remains to be seen.