Come clean on Eskom, Gordhan urged
AS ESKOM switches to higher stages of load shedding, Public Enterprises (DPE) Minister Pravin Gordhan needs to come clean on the actual state of the troubled entity, two leading experts have said.
The Treasury and the DPE announced yesterday that they would “find” money for diesel to keep the lights on as Eskom announced a variation between stage 2 and stage 5 of daily power cuts.
Eskom recently announced that it had run out of money for diesel purchases to offset severe load shedding during breakdowns at its plants, but energy expert Lungile Mashile said she wasn’t surprised that weeks went by without any action after the announcement because of “incompetence”.
A brief statement yesterday by DPE spokesperson Richard Mantu said: “The DPE is urgently working with the National Treasury and Eskom for it to find the money to buy supplies of diesel.”
Last week, the troubled entity forecast load shedding for the next 12 months after breakdowns and upgrades at its plants.
Mashile estimated that, at the very least, the Treasury would need to come up with R5 billion by March to offset load shedding.
She said that from April to date, Eskom had used R11bn to burn diesel to keep the lights on.
Energy expert Ted Blom said funding the diesel shortage would cost R24bn in 12 months.
That the troubled company is yet to submit financial statements to Parliament by September 30 may come back to bite the department if it considers taking out a loan to fund the diesel shortage, Mashile warned.
Mashile said: “Either they’re going to go to the Treasury or commercial or development banks for short-term (loan) facilities. Judging by the burn rate, they’re going to need R5bn by March 2023.”
She said Eskom had R100bn in its Regulatory Clearing Account, the negative effect of which would see tariffs shoot through the roof.
Mashile said she was surprised Eskom was asking for money when, in September, Gordhan told the Electricity Crisis Committee that Eskom didn’t need money.
Blom echoed Mashile and said the DPE was “useless” and was misleading the public.