Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu said that Cabinet expected to receive a paper detailing Eskom’s outlook in the next Cabinet’s meeting.
He added that the consideration of the Eskom paper would be an “integrated Cabinet discussion”, taking into account various issues related to Eskom, such as the economy and the spending capacity of the fiscus.
However Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said government will publish a special paper on Eskom which will clearly outline the road-map to put Eskom on a long-term sustainability path within the next few weeks.
“This paper will reflect the urgent work that is taking place to identify options to resolve the debt challenge, the process for restructuring Eskom and importantly, to ensure a just transition,” the ministry said in a statement.
Eskom is among the biggest power utilities in the world, famous for its ability to handle vast tonnages of low-grade coal. Its power plants are mostly coal with one nuclear station and some pumped storage (water).
The state-owned utility, which supplies about 95% of South Africa’s power, has a mountain of debt and is reliant on government bailouts to remain solvent.
And South Africa will be vulnerable to load-shedding at the end of August, when Eskom ramps up its plant-maintenance programme.
Meanwhile, the power utility announced that the planned legal separation of its business units could take up to four years.