New Funding Bill For Eskom Expected July 23

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni aims to table a bill in Parliament on July 23 to give struggling state power utility Eskom more money for the current financial year and the next, to alleviate its acute liquidity problems.

Mboweni told parliament during his budget vote Thursday that Eskom poses the biggest risk to the country’s fiscal framework and underlined that there were serious risks to the economy if it collapsed.

Eskom, which supplies more than 90 percent of the country’s electricity but has implemented severe power cuts this year, fails to generate sufficient profit to meet its debt-service costs and has required state cash injections to stay afloat.

Mboweni added that the government would also provide financial support from its contingency reserve to ailing South African Airways, weapons manufacturer Denel and public broadcaster SABC.