Cape Town - The names of the 27 companies providing coal to Eskom’s coal-fired power stations have been provided to Members of Parliament by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, but she has declined to divulge the prices paid to each of these companies for their supplies.
In a written reply to DA public enterprises spokesperson Natasha Michael, who asked what were the names of each of the companies providing coal to Eskom and what prices were paid to each, the minister said: “This information is commercially sensitive (and) is subject to standard confidentiality clauses in the agreements with suppliers and thus the information cannot be disclosed without risk to Eskom with respect to litigation and leverage to continue negotiating for competitive pricing”.
With Anglo American [JSE:AGL] reporting that it wanted to withdraw its supply of coal to Eskom because of government requirements that blacks must own at least 55% of a supplier, energy analyst Ted Blom - a former senior executive at Eskom - said that he was certain that Eskom’s costs were rocketing as a consequence of having to source from the black controlled companies.