Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has revealed the organisation sent the government a list of potential board members for a national transmission company a year ago and it is still waiting for them to be appointed, says a Business Day report.

While praising the speed of some of SA’s electricity reforms, he said it was taking too long for the independent transmission company to receive the necessary licences, legal framework and board in order for it to start operating.

He said Eskom had done everything in its power to enable the legal separation of its transmission business.

‘At Eskom, we have done everything that we can. We concluded an asset transfer agreement. We have set up the National Transmission Company of SA,’ he said. ‘We have set up separate balance sheets, (and) income statements. We have separated SAP (software). That is no minor exercise,’ he said.

The report notes the unbundling of Eskom into three separate units – transmission, generation and distribution – was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019.

A legally binding merger agreement, in which Eskom agreed to transfer its transmission division, was finalised in December 2021 and in the same month it applied to Nersa for licences for the transmission, trading, import and export of electricity.

 De Ruyter said: ‘We are still waiting for a number of licences. We are waiting for some legislative changes. And that has not been happening as quickly as it should have.’

Full Business Day report

De Ruyter expects the amount of money Eskom is owed by municipalities – now more than R68bn – will rise even further before the 2024 general election, says a second Business Day report.

Requests to various government departments and municipalities for debt to be paid were unsuccessful, said De Ruyter.

Repair and maintenance of the coal-fired fleet is expected to cost R12.3bn in the 2023 financial year, he added. In a presentation to three parliamentary committees, De Ruyter highlighted Eskom’s cash requirements and rising municipal debt, expected to accelerate in the lead-up to the 2024 poll, based on experience.

There has been talk of Eskom forgoing maintenance in the short term to shore up support for the government, but De Ruyter said such a move would be ‘catastrophic’.

Such a step might buy six months without load-shedding but the situation thereafter would be ‘far more catastrophic’ as then the units would break down completely,’ he said.

‘We must guard against the temptation to again postpone maintenance. We need to look after these plants if we want them to be reliable,’ De Ruyter said, warning that 2023 will be tough in terms of load-shedding.

Second Business Day report