By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State-owned power utility Eskom says group finance GM Martin Buys will serve as acting CFO with immediate effect and until further notice.
It says Buys is a seasoned executive who started his career at Eskom in 1987.
He has held various roles over the course of his almost 40-year career at Eskom, predominantly within the field of finance.
Buys takes over from Calib Cassim, who became Eskom’s interim chief executive officer following the exit of former CEO Andre de Ruyter near the end of February.
Buys will likely have a lot on his plate, with Eskom’s finances remaining dire.
The group’s latest interim financial statements published this Friday (31 March) have noted concern over the deterioration in some of the company’s financial indicators compared to the year before.
Eskom said that there is also concern over the fact that the company is in a ‘debt-reliant liquidity situation’ resulting from low tariffs, stagnant and contracting sales volumes, above-inflation cost increases and constrained generation performance.
The company has, however, through the National Treasury, been granted a total debt-relief arrangement of R254 billion to be provided in two parts, namely:
- R184 billion – representing Eskoms full debt settlement requirement in three parts over the medium term.
- R70 billion – a direct take-over of Eskom loan portfolio in 2025/26.
Meanwhile the power utility will ramp up load shedding to stage 4 this weekend, with the lowest level planned being stage 2 on Sunday.
Load shedding was pushed to stage 4 at 13:11 on Friday (31 March) due to higher-than-anticipated demand. This will continue until 05h00 on Saturday morning.
Thereafter, stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 05h00 until 16h00 on Saturday, followed by stage 4 load shedding until 05h00 on Sunday. At 05h00 on Sunday, stage 2 load shedding will be implemented until 16h00.
Then stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 16h00 on Sunday until 16h00 on Monday.
Breakdowns have increased to 15,388MW of generating capacity, while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance has increased to 7,169MW.
Over the past 24 hours two generation units were returned to service at Lethabo and Medupi power stations.
In the same period, a generating unit each at Hendrina, Matimba and two units at Matla power stations were taken offline for repairs. The delays in returning a unit to service at Camden, Kriel and Tutuka power stations have contributed to the capacity constraints.