- Bloomberg reports that South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has confirmed that the Ministry of Energy will take over responsibility for overseeing state utility, Eskom.
The change will be in line with a resolution adopted by the governing African National Congress at its national conference last week, which specified that state companies operating in specific economic sectors should be overseen by the relevant government departments.
“It is a clear mandate from conference,” Ramaphosa told reporters at a media event in Johannesburg on Monday. “The resolution will be implemented,” and the government will decide how and when it will be done, he said.
Eskom has traditional fallen under the control of the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises (SOE). SOE Minister, Pravin Gordhan, recently appointed a new board at Eskom. Read more
Related news: South Africa’s renewable energy procurement programme in tatters
Several previous resolutions taken years ago by the ANC are still work in progress, and Ramaphosa warned that the party’s latest policy decisions will take time to implement. “Things in government move very slowly, I have learned,” he said. Ramaphosa spoke on Monday at a press event at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg.
Related news: Gwede Mantashe says ANC does not want him to take stewardship of Eskom
Related: South Africa is in a massive energy crisis. The state owned energy utility, Eskom, is facing unsustainable debt of around R400 billion and cannot meet the country’s electricity demand. More recently, the outgoing CEO of Eskom, Andre De Ruyter, laid an attempted murder charge with the South African Police Service, after drinking a cup of coffee laced with cyanide at his Eskom office. Read more
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
Source: Bloomberg
1 Comment
Moving the Power Utility to the Department of Energy seems to be the right move! But in essence, it probably just opens the barn door to a new round of looting. Plus, no evidence of rightsizing the generation portfolio of the utility to bring it back into profitability. Just another non-starter in solving the real problems: unions and government interference in SOE,s including water and transportation infrastructure! No concrete plans In place or even on the drawing board!