JOHANNESBURG/CAPE TOWN – The National Treasury on Tuesday put Eskom on a tight leash, imposing stiff conditions for the struggling power utility to meet before accessing its latest bailout.
The Treasury ordered Eskom to give it daily liquidity position updates, including on its income, operational expenditure, working capital, capex, financing cash flows, cost analyses on its projects and any deviations from its budgeted allocations. The Treasury said, among the 26 strict conditions for further bailouts, Eskom also needed to provide monthly updates on the restructuring of its business, operational status and how well its generation fleet was performing.
The conditions come just weeks after Finance Minister Tito Mboweni issued a stark warning that Eskom needed to change its business model in order to survive. During the presentation of the Special Appropriations Bill in Parliament in July, Mboweni said the government would impose strict conditions to ensure transparency and effective management of the utility.
He said Eskom was allocated R26 billion for the 2019/20 financial year and R33bn for 2020/21 to meet its financial obligations.
busrep Like that will help anything. As long as the ANC is 'in charge', it'll only get worse.