Godongwana: nice policy useless without power

South Africa can have nice policy on paper but it is useless if it can’t provide electricity, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said on Thursday.

Struggling state utility Eskom extended the country’s worst-ever power cuts on Wednesday as more of its generating units broke down.

Read: SA returns to brink of record electricity outages

Power outages are a major source of public frustration with the governing African National Congress party and a brake on economic growth in Africa‘s most industrialised nation.

Read: Stage 6 load shedding extended throughout the day

“We want to resolve the Eskom issue soon, part of that… is to make sure (it has) a healthy balance sheet,” Godongwana said during a meeting with the country’s delegation to the World Economic Forum that kicks off in Davos next week.

Read: Just find the wretched money for the diesel!

The minister said an “appropriate announcement” on Eskom would be made on February 22. South Africa‘s annual budget is normally presented in February, and Godongwana is expected to unveil a plan for the government to take on part of the utility’s roughly R400 billion debt.

Source: moneyweb.co.za