South Africa has no option but to increase financial support for Eskom even while pushing for reforms at the stricken state-owned power utility, according to national treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane.
While President Cyril Ramaphosa says power utility Eskom is considered too big to fail, S&P Global Ratings has a different view: it could be too big to support.
While state-owned enterprises such as Eskom, SAA and the SABC continue to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, one (partially) state-owned company is doing quite well, thank you very much. By Duncan McLeod.
An exodus of CEOs during the economic downturn is becoming alarming, particularly as there are apparently so few ready replacements.
It isn’t difficult to find the main culprit behind South Africa’s biggest economic contraction in a decade: Eskom, the state-monopoly power provider.
South Africa’s economy contracted the most in a decade in the first quarter as the nation suffered the deepest power outages since 2008. The rand dropped and banking shares slumped.
South African Airways CEO Vuyani Jarana has quit the financially stricken state-owned company, citing a lack of funding and drop in government support for the carrier’s turnaround plan.
The labour union whose members contribute most to the funds overseen by South Africa’s state pension manager wants the institution to stop investing in the debt of Eskom.
Eskom’s 96-year history is replete with former CEOs who rose from within the debt-laden state utility to run the company. There are few obvious choices for the next CEO to come from those same ranks.
The top job at one of South Africa’s biggest and most-troubled companies is open again for the 11th time in a decade and it’s unclear anyone is ready to fill it.