A day after the gazette was published, Godongwana defended the exemption and said it aimed to avoid the risk of a “possible negative outlook on Eskom’s corporate rating and credit assessment with the credit rating agencies”.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/government/486697-finance-minister-withdraws-eskoms-exemption-from-reporting-irregular-and-wasteful-spending-for-now.html

Botswana also gets power from other Southern African countries such as Zambia through Eskom’s transmission network.

Source: https://mg.co.za/thoughtleader/opinion/2023-05-11-eskoms-woes-continue-to-pile-up/

Eberhard tracked Eskom’s average annual tariff hikes from the 2007/9 financial year to 2021/22 and compared them to inflation over the same period.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/485175-south-africas-electricity-price-nightmare.html

“Eskom is experiencing very high levels of plant unreliability and forced outages currently,” said Thomas Conradie, Eskom’s power station general manager.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/477265-eskoms-planned-load-shedding-schedule-for-the-week-up-to-stage-4.html

Eskom’s 14 coal plants regularly break down, exacerbating rotational power cuts of as long as 12 hours a day that are crimping economic growth.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/482865-bad-news-for-eskoms-broken-coal-power-plants.html

Eskom’s debt, however, remains taxpayers’ problem and the ANC government’s cancellation of outstanding debt, as part of a populist election campaign, will put the already overtaxed middle class under even more pressure.

Source: https://southafricatoday.net/south-africa-news/gauteng/cancellation-of-power-debt-reinforces-culture-of-non-payment-contributes-to-hikes-in-prices/

Eskom’s De Ruyter calls for phasing out of coal.

Source: https://mg.co.za/environment/2023-02-06-de-ruyter-coal-is-not-king-phase-it-out-for-renewables/

Eskom’s EAF has been declining for years because of poor maintenance at power stations and increased breakdowns.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/investing/483365-eskoms-load-shedding-turnaround-plan-is-failing.html

Eskom’s former general manager of system operations, Robbie van Heerden, said South Africa would most likely go to stage 8 during winter.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/investing/483507-stage-8-load-shedding-warnings.html

Eskom’s operational viability also hinges on stopping further accumulation of municipal arrears to Eskom and making the electricity tariff setting mechanism fully cost reflective.

Source: https://www.africanews.it/english/south-africa-staff-concluding-statement-of-the-2023-article-iv-mission/

He highlighted that Eskom’s coal fleet’s EAF dropped to below 40% in January, February, and April, which means it is a distinct possibility in winter.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/investing/488633-south-africa-could-face-stage-11-power-cuts-in-a-matter-of-months.html

He said that the load-shedding situation would worsen if Eskom’s performance doesn’t improve, resulting in higher stages during winter as demand increases.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/490939-south-africas-worst-year-of-load-shedding-ever-with-235-days-to-go.html

In other news, S&P Global Ratings put Eskom’s debt assessment on positive watch, meaning it could upgrade it.

Source: https://mg.co.za/environment/2023-03-17-some-light-at-the-end-of-eskoms-tunnel/

Kgadima said, “Eskom’s exorbitant and extortionist electricity tariffs and inordinately long stages of load-shedding forced businesses and industries and domestic electricity consumers to urgently seek off-grid alternatives.”

Source: https://mg.co.za/news/2023-07-13-eskom-fears-revenue-dip-as-appetite-for-solar-pv-grows/

“Lethabo, Marimba and Medupi have been experiencing continued good performance and remain among Eskom’s three best performing stations.”

Source: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/load-shedding/load-shedding-no-longer-suspended-sunday-tuesday/

Outgoing chief executive André de Ruyter reiterated Eskom’s aim to add 1 862 megawatts to the power grid by the end of next month.

Source: https://mg.co.za/news/2023-02-07-eskom-plans-to-spend-18-2-more-on-independent-power-producers-in-the-next-five-years/

Several South African insurers — including the state-owned Sasria that covers special risks like riots, strikes, and terrorism — are excluding damages related to the possible failure of Eskom’s national grid.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/490121-south-africans-must-start-thinking-about-total-grid-collapse.html

The bidders have collectively invested about R100 million in these projects, just to be left out due to a lack of connection capacity in Eskom’s transmission grid in the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape.

Source: https://www.citizen.co.za/business/time-running-salvage-23-rejected-wind-energy-projects/

The department however admitted to actively prospecting and engaging diesel suppliers to expand Eskom’s supplier pool.

Source: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/eskom-billions-wasted-diesel-purchase/

The exemption was made “after due consideration of the risk of a possible negative outlook on Eskom’s corporate rating and credit assessment with the credit rating agencies,” Godongwana wrote.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/486499-eskom-exempted-from-reporting-wasteful-and-irregular-spending-to-spare-its-credit-rating.html