Eskom “isn’t on the brink of financial collapse” and the government has the problem “well under control”, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has said.
Less than a week after the CEO of Eskom declared “the days of surprises are over”, documents show the government was forced to pay R5-billion in emergency funds so the utility could meet obligations.
Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has sketched two scenarios for winter that stretched the bounds of our collective credulity.
Eskom has a plan to keep the lights on for the rest of the year – or, in the worst-case scenario, to implement only stage-one rotational load shedding. Here’s how it intends achieving this promise.
Finance minister Tito Mboweni said a discussion must begin on whether the government needs to retain control of all the assets it currently owns given the poor state of the national finances.
South Africans face another day of traffic snarl-ups and disrupted business with no end in sight for rolling power cuts that started a week ago.
South Africans looking for signs of an end to the latest round of power cuts were left disappointed after the minister responsible for power utility Eskom said he doesn’t have answers yet.
Eskom will implement stage-four load shedding until at least Tuesday as the effects of a tropical cyclone in Mozambique and problems at the company’s power plants continue to put severe pressure on the national power grid.
The response to this week’s unexpected wave of rolling blackouts load shedding – by practically everyone – has been completely unimaginative. Predictably so.
South Africa’s struggling power utility started a third day of power outages, blaming issues including failures at two huge new power stations that are also the main source of the company’s massive debt.