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Last Updated
11 Dec 2014
Government said in October it would inject R20bn into Eskom and it could also convert its existing 60 billion rand subordinated
loan to state-owned equity.
But
the sum is due to come from the sale of "non-strategic assets",
privatisation that is sure to come under attack from President Jacob Zuma's
far-left opponents and powerful trade unions.- Reuters.
11 Dec 2014
Roodt:
"Clearly, what we have done up to now is not working and I don't know
if we are doing enough to turn the ship around."
11 Dec 2014
South Africa has suffered its worst power shortages since 2008 this month
due to creaking infrastructure, power plant failures and emergency maintenance.
"We are facing a massive crisis to the South African economy that is
costing us 100s of billions (rand) in lost production," said Dawie Roodt,
chief economist at Efficient Group. - Reuters.
11 Dec 2014
Due to climate change issues, SA needs to create an energy mix which will include coal, renewable energy etc and to optimise projects much more - Engineering News' Terence Creamer.
11 Dec 2014
The process of transferring these powers will also involve consultations between the Minister of Public Enterprises and the Minister of Finance as well as include the introduction of the Minister of Finance to the airline’s board of directors. The Minister of Finance and National Treasury will therefore, not give any media interviews on SAA until these processes have been completed.
11 Dec 2014
The transfer of these administrative powers which are derived from the South African Airways Act 2007 will be done via a proclamation in the Government Gazette. Such a transfer of administrative powers from one Minister to another is allowed for in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
11 Dec 2014
The Minister of Finance and National Treasury will not be giving any media interviews on South African Airways (SAA) until the process of transferring the administrative powers relating to the airline company from the Minister responsible for the Public Enterprises to the Minister of Finance has been finalised.
11 Dec 2014
Etzinger: No guarantees but at this time we are cautiously optimistic that we can give SA a break.
11 Dec 2014
Our first Eskom joke is in: Friedrich Thiem said we're set for Christmas by candlelight, but this joke only really works in Afrikaans: "Eskom sit die 'kers' in Kersfees!"
Send yours in now.
11 Dec 2014
According to Fin24's
Donwald Pressly, it has been speculated
in the past week that Gulf carrier Etihad Airways is seeking a minority stake
in South African Airways. Etihad is a Middle Eastern carrier with a strong
fleet of wide-bodied planes, which SAA needs.
11 Dec 2014
Fin24 user Paul Khoza said: "It's about time that Eskom is totally reshuffled. As early as 2004 they knew that they were acutely short of experienced engineers after an exodus of white experienced engineers, but they did not replace these skills. They also knew at this time that they were running out of generating capacity. We are now paying for this lack of foresight and vision. A total reshuffle is needed at this SOE."
11 Dec 2014
Silke: “Government's
declaration today is a welcome sign that it understands the urgency to act and
that they days of turning a blind-eye to the bad habits of patronage and cadre
deployment have to be reversed if the country is to have a sustainable SOE
sector and attempt to kickstart economic growth.”
11 Dec 2014
Silke: “A
failed SOE sector will eventually necessitate private sector involvement. Eskom's
issues have gone un-policed by the State for too long and are now costing the
country billions - just as the country finds itself within a broader economic
decline and policy paralysis.”
11 Dec 2014
Silke: “Ultimately,
Government have only themselves to blame for allowing Eskom, SAA and the Post
Office (as SOE's) to deteriorate to the point of abject failure. If Government
does not go some way to rectifying the decline, the State will be unable to
ideologically motivate against greater private sector stakes in critical
aspects of these enterprises.”
11 Dec 2014
Silke: “Once
again, Ramaphosa has been entrusted to provide leadership and while his
enhanced role is welcomed, he is stretched with a number of simultaneous
projects that would include keeping the flames of the NDP alive, bringing peace
to Lesotho amongst other party-political actions.”
11 Dec 2014
Silke: Eskom
and SAA are both forcing Government's hand to look at more urgent and creative
ways to manage these essential utilities.
11 Dec 2014
Silke: In
addition, the expressed intention to work with the private sector may move SOE's
towards a better relationship with the broader business community. Essentially,
having hit rock bottom with both Eskom and SAA, Government has been forced to
look at a variety of options that may move it away from its narrow and often
myopic view which sidelines the private sector.
11 Dec 2014
Political analysis Daniel Silke: Ramaphosa's
appointment indicates both the seriousness of the current situation as well as
the need to enhance oversight which has been sorely lacking and perhaps was at
the heart of the SOE/Eskom collapse.
11 Dec 2014
South Africans know how to laugh at themselves. It's a survival technique developed over decades. Fin24 has already started receiving witty message, to make light out of a dark situation:
"What's the difference between the Titanic and South Africa? The Titanic had its lights on when it went down."
"The other day I was stopped by a metro officer due to a broken tail light. I told him it was due to load shedding."
"If Eskom thinks they can stop us sending jokes via cellphones because we can't charge our phones, they must think again. We still have car chargers!"
Do you have any "clean" jokes that poke fun at this serious matter? Send them to us now.
11 Dec 2014
Moeng: “Tax payers and other observers will only renew their
trust in government – whose credibility quotient is fast diminishing - if all
is done with utmost transparently, and having the assurance that adequate
measures are in place to discourage any form of process abuse which might
further impact negatively on the already suffering brand South Africa image.”
FULL STORY
11 Dec 2014
Moeng: “Government would be well advised to also have a
transparent review of the 2010 Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) for energy, in
partnership with the private sector and relevant independent bodies, e.g.
research institutes, in order to update it with data that is relevant to the
country’s changed and projected energy needs into the medium to long-term. All
future investment should be based on an updated IRP.”
11 Dec 2014
Moeng: “It does seem like all this flurry of activity is
done on the back foot; aimed at putting-off short-term fires.”
11 Dec 2014
Moeng: "One only hopes that the results of SOC
performance reviews will be transparent and that we shall all get to know, for
instance, the details of the touted five-point plan."
11 Dec 2014
It is a good thing that government seems to be acting on
current problems facing some key State Owned Companies, said Solly Moeng, MD at
Don Valley.
11 Dec 2014
Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe: "A technical team war room for the implementation of the five-point plan is constituted with immediate effect."
FULL STORY
11 Dec 2014
The fifth element of the turnaround plan was to achieve the various interventions “in the period over the next 30 days”, the cabinet statement said.
FULL STORY
11 Dec 2014
The fourth element of the turnaround plan was launching a coal-independent power producer programme. The focus is expected to be on harnessing waste energy from the sugar, paper, and pulp industries. The latter is expected to produce about 1 000 MW.
FULL STORY
11 Dec 2014
A third element of the five point plan was the “retrofitting energy efficient technologies” at the 183 municipalities around the country. This would also apply to commercial and residential buildings, Radebe pledged.
FULL STORY
11 Dec 2014
Another key element of the five point plan was that government was also hopeful that another thousand megawatts would be brought on stream by using gas.
11 Dec 2014
One of the five points was to extend the cogeneration “opportunity” through the extension of existing contracts with the private sector.
FULL STORY
11 Dec 2014
Mike Schüssler of economists.co.za: "Put the duties of the post office out to tender and see if the private
sector can help partner the post office. We are too small a country in economic
terms to be able to afford three big loss-making State owned enterprises."
11 Dec 2014
Mike Schüssler of economists.co.za: "
Eskom should not be allowed to decide who supplies power to it. You
cannot be judge and jury as Eskom in a sense is. Then we need to get the new
projects back on track which will eventually help the economy back on track. We
have lost not billions but hundreds of billions because of power shortages."
11 Dec 2014
Mike Schüssler of economists.co.za: "Eskom needs to get the
private sector involved pronto. Competition concerns will be raised unless one
splits Eskom into a distribution arm which maintain a monopoly (for now) and a
generation arm and anyone else who wants too can generate and sell power to the
grid (certain standards etc. in place of course) even private households
should be allowed via local governments and at reasonable prices i.e. less than
we pay for electricity."
11 Dec 2014
Mike Schüssler of economists.co.za: "It needs to be sorted quickly and needs to be given
the room to look for partners and to get the politics out of the way. If it
carries our flag to an region but does not make money then a tender process should
be written and the state puts that out to tender."
11 Dec 2014
Mike Schüssler of
economists.co.za: "One SAA is probably not a going concern right now and would need plenty
of cash. It therefore would not get much money when it is sold. It has old
aircraft leases and it has very little in assets apart from a few slots at busy
airports around the world."
11 Dec 2014
What government had to
do in the longer term was to ensure that the state power monopoly had enough
money to cater for its needs. This could take the form of guarantees or
providing “the (fiscal) space” for Eskom to garner loans and “raise its own
money. That would be a combination of financial processes.”
11 Dec 2014
Pressed on whether the diesel powered option was now
a long term option, Brown was adamant that this could not be the case. That
would bankrupt Eskom, she said: “Eskom would not be able to afford that.”
11 Dec 2014
Public Enterprises
Minister Lynne Brown said – at a briefing in Pretoria beamed to Cape Town –
that: “Eskom has enough money to provide diesel (for its current needs).”
Eskom turns to diesel powered turbines when it is having difficulties
with its coal-fired plants. She noted tht Eskom’s cash-flow would be fine
for the next two months. “I am quite comfortable that to January 2015 Eskom’s
cash flow will be fine.”
11 Dec 2014
Government is leaning
strongly on the private sector to help it achieve a five-point turnaround plan
for the embattled power monopoly Eskom - including garnering loans, extending
cogeneration, tapping into waste energy and importing gas, it emerged at a
cabinet briefing today, writes
Donwald Pressly.
11 Dec 2014
Loos: "A number of factors will
continue to weigh on South Africa's economic growth potential over the next 2-3
years. These include acute electricity supply constraints, rising interest
rates, strained labour relations and the risk of further industrial action,
particularly by public sector workers early in 2015."
FULL STORY
