‘Government has no intention to privatise Eskom’

The Ministry of Finance says the government has no intention to privatise Eskom. It says, however, that it wants to end the dominance of one player supplying the country’s electricity.

This follows calls by the Democratic Alliance (DA) for the privatisation of the power utility due to the rolling blackouts. Eskom has been implementing Stage 6 rolling blackouts since Sunday.

Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, briefed Parliament’s joint committees on finance and appropriations.

Godongwana faced tough questions about the R254 billion debt relief that has been given to Eskom in this year’s budget.

Deputy Minister David Masondo says, “There is no intention to privatise the strategic assets of Eskom. Eskom will still play a critical role in the generation of energy. It’s a question …. that it’s just that we are not only going to rely on Eskom to generate energy for the economy.”

Some MPs are critical of the Eskom debt relief he announced in his budget speech.

Ministry of Finance says government has no intention to privatise Eskom:

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