Public Enterprises acting Director General Thuto Shomang said Eskom’s current debt stands at R435 billion, which represented 15% of SA’s sovereign debt.
“Default is threatening the economy,” Shomang said.
Shomang said cash generated by the entity did not cover operating and servicing costs.
He said the escalation of municipal and Soweto debt totalling R28bn was growing at R1bn a month.
“The number of employees increased from 32 000 in 2007 to 48 000 in 2018 with associated costs growing from R9.5bn to R29.5bn over the period,” he said.
Eskom was struggling to maintain operational sustainability with its ageing generation fleet on average about 37 years.
There has been no implementation of essential mid-life refurbishments and the poor quality of maintenance due to poor workmanship with at least 40% of plant breakdowns due to human errors, he said.
Shomang also said there were on-going coal shortages due to poor management and lack of investments in mines as well as significant loss of critical skills.
Eskom has experienced systematic corruption, malfeasance and fraud.
“The resultant effect of these corrupt transactions is the pass-through to the consumer and the shareholder.”
Earlier he said Eskom was technically insolvent and would cease to exist in April without a bailout from government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said Eskom would be unbundled into three entities that will be responsible for generation, transmission and distribution.
ANA