Restructuring Eskom is top of the SA agenda – Nene

ANA FILE – Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. FILE PHOTO: Leon Lestrade/African News Agency(ANA)

JOHANNESBURG – Restructuring state-run power firm Eskom is “on top of the agenda” for South Africa, the country’s finance minister Nhlanhla Nene said on Friday, though he said recent outages likely had very little impact on the economy.
“It should be very minimal this time round, because…it also was related to the impasse in the industrial space,” Nene reporters on the sidelines of an Africa conference hosted by Standard Bank.
Discussions on wages with unions were continuing, he said
He added: “Beyond the discussions and the negotiations on the salaries, what is important is actually beginning to restructure Eskom….it is on top of our agenda to get Eskom on a sustainable platform.”
He also said South Africa needed to build up its fiscal buffers to be able to withstand any external shocks and that he expected the economy to expand at 1.5 percent in 2018 despite the surprise contraction in the first quarter.
– REUTERS 

Source: iol.co.za