Unsalvageable? Eskom will suffer same fate as SAA – expert

While Government maintains it is hard at work trying to turn things around at Eskom, an expert reckons such efforts will be futile as the embattled power utility is bound to have the same fate as South African Airways (SAA).

The recent bouts of load shedding being implemented by Eskom is a firm indicator that things are far from improving, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa having unveiled a comprehensive plan to emerge from the energy crisis. Now, Efficient Group Chief Economist Dawie Roodt is comparing Eskom to SAA, which went into business rescue in December 2019. Takatso was chosen as SAA’s strategic equity partner already more than a year ago.

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IS ESKOM THE NEXT SAA?

According to Roodt, Eskom has a bloated staff, which does little to ease its cash struggles. He reckons the parastatal has more than 20 000 too many employees – and adds that it would have long been placed under business rescue, had it been a private entity.

“If this was a private sector company, they would have been put been into business rescue. Tens of thousands of people would have lost their jobs. It would have been restructured, which means the assets would have been sold. We also would have seen if some of the remaining assets can still work at Eskom,” he told SABC News on Thursday, 13 October 2022.

Roodt added that like Eskom, Transnet has an astronomical wage bill that needs to be cut. Employees at the freight agency have downed tools over wage demands.