Provinces ‘will pay for Eskom bailout’

IF THE proposed Special Appropriations Bill, also known as the Eskom Bill, is passed, provinces will face more budget cuts which will eat into their service delivery programmes.

From the provincial legislature, the DA’s Deidré Baartman is leading calls to reject the budget cuts, which she said were being made to secure Eskom’s R130 billion bailout. She said the money could be better used to build schools and hospitals.

Baartman, who is the provincial legislature’s chairperson of the standing committee on finance, economic opportunities and tourism, said that collectively provincial budgets have already been cut by R17 billion in the 2019/20 financial year as part of the adopted Appropriations Bill, amounting to a collective R59bn over the next three financial years.

Baartman has requested a meeting with Finance MEC David Maynier, to ask him to reject the proposed bill, and has also contacted the chairperson of the standing committee on finance at the National Assembly, Yunus Carrim, requesting that select public hearings be held in the provinces pending the bill’s consideration.

Baartman said: “National Treasury requested provinces to look at ways to cut our respective budgets by 5%, 6% and 7% over the next three years.

“In the Western Cape, in particular, this will amount to R13bn,” she said.

She estimated that this money could build 65 schools or 13 district hospitals or about 130 community clinics and said this would be a better use of taxpayers’ money than bailing out Eskom.

Baartman has also written to acting chief executive of Eskom, Jabu Mabuza, inviting him to brief the standing committee on the energy strategy for the Western Cape and on Section 34 determinations on electricity generation for municipalities in the province. The meeting has been arranged for October 9.

The committee has also written to Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to invite them to the briefing where they hope to receive details of the proposed legislation.

Asked what alternatives she would suggest for Eskom, she said: “(They could) sell some of Eskom’s coal-fired plants as part of restructuring; break Eskom into two entities, a generation entity which is privatised and a transmission/distribution entity.

“This can be done by adopting the Cheaper Energy Bill currently before Parliament (the Independent Electricity Management Bill) and cleaning up in terms of corruption and mismanagement,” said Baartman.

She added: “Any money given to Eskom must have strict conditions attached.”