As SA Heads To The Polls Has Eskom Already Burnt Though Its Bailout?

There are growing concerns that Eskom might have bankrupted itself trying to keep the lights on in the lead up to today’s election. This came after the government handed over R5-billion in an emergency bailout at the beginning of April.

Since last week the Eskom open-cycle gas turbines have been operating continuously, running up significant bills burning diesel to keep SA lit up until election day.

Eskom has not replied to questions over what its diesel bill for the year is, however in April they were spending about R1 billion a month on diesel. Democratic Alliance’s premier candidate for the province, estimated that it cost R6.3-million an hour to run diesel turbine generators such as the Ankerlig power station in Atlantis.

In March, the country was plagued by a series of planned rolling power outages, angering South Africans and threatening the country’s already weak economy. 

But these outages ended in April, despite the problems at Eskom persisting.

Eskom’s fate is intrinsically linked to South Africa’s economy, because most of its debt — 15% of South Africa’s sovereign debt — is backed by government guarantees. Government’s exposure to Eskom in terms of guarantees is R281-billion.