JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – January 30: Eskom chairman Jabu Mabuza and CEO Phakamani Hadebe during the interim results announcement at Megawatt Park on January 30, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Hadebe alleged that increased levels of irregular expenditure at the power utility are a consequence of poor leadership. (Photo by Gallo mages / Netwerk24 / Felix Dlangamandla)
Eskom in deep trouble as coal reserves dwindle and mass protests loom
Eskom regrets inking a deal with Gupta-owned Tegeta.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – January 30: Eskom chairman Jabu Mabuza and CEO Phakamani Hadebe during the interim results announcement at Megawatt Park on January 30, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Hadebe alleged that increased levels of irregular expenditure at the power utility are a consequence of poor leadership. (Photo by Gallo mages / Netwerk24 / Felix Dlangamandla)
The embattled national power supplier, Eskom, is hanging on by a thread as its coal reserves dwindle and mass protest action looms.
Eskom is on the ropes and pleading for mercy. In a recent Parliamentary address, company chairperson, Jabu Mabuza, sang a woeful song of financial collapse and industrial action.
Gupta deal brings Eskom to its knees
While the situation at Eskom is now beyond dire, Mabuza did have the guts to admit that all the company’s current problems have been self-inflicted.
Those self-inflicted wounds include R19 billion in irregular expenditure, gross operational mismanagement and signing a coal contract with the Gupta-owned Tegeta. All of these issues are interlinked, and they are all crippling South Africa’s national power utility.
The final nail in Eskom’s already pre-ordered coffin may be that coal stockpiles at nine of its 15 stations are now below the required levels and are standing at less than a month’s supply.
EWN reported on Eskom’s dismal parliamentary hearing, where it was revealed that company was now being held to ransom by coal suppliers it has previously severed ties with.
Eskom helped Tegeta ink a deal with Optimum coal mine in2015, which was added to a long list of controversial business deals involving the infamous Gupta family.
Industrial action looms
As a result of severe mismanagement within the mining operation at Optimum, and its links to Gupta-owned Tegeta, the entire business was put under business rescue administration.
If dangerously low coal supplies aren’t enough to sink Eskom, the looming threat of mass protest action surely will. The national power utility has been battling Unions in vicious wage disputes for the last three month, managing to stave off complete collapse – but only just.
While one wage dispute now draws to a close, it’s reported that 6 700 line managers and senior engineers, also known as the Management, Professional and Specialists (MPS), are on the brink of downing tools over wage disagreements.
