Eskom posts record loss

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but its bonds rallied on optimism that it is starting to stem the bleeding.
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I don't see anything related to this in the article, and I have not seen anything like this in the news. What has Eskom done so far to "stem the bleeding".
 
From a #1 in 2001 worldwide to this.
Only the anc and cadres can manage to turn good things to shyte and blame everyone else except their own self righteous selves
 
furpile said:
I don't see anything related to this in the article, and I have not seen anything like this in the news. What has Eskom done so far to "stem the bleeding".
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If this article is anything to go by, the Eskom board have finally realised there is a problem, which is the first step to doing something about it: https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics...ng-problems-says-outgoing-ceo-hadebe-30086571
Hadebe said that the interim board had an understanding that Eskom had surplus electricity and was there to deal with weak financial position, declining revenue and governance failures which were threatening the sustainability of the organisation, as per mandate from government.

"We were unfortunately oblivious to underlying factors. And these were the declining maintenance spent that was faced over years by power stations, the plants that had utilisation factor of 87% amidst a 37 years average age. This was supposed to crack," Hadebe said.

"So while we achieved some progress with regard to the performance on this mandate of financial oversight and governance, it is operational performance that has proven to be a challenge. Within four months having joined Eskom, the board and management soon learnt that the operational issues were not what we thought they were."
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The situation is actually worse than the article indicates, those are only the historical losses. Ongoing interest payments and capital spending on Medupi and Kusile will deepen the debt hole: https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/south-africa/eskom-has-18-months-to-get-its-house-in-order/
Eskom’s chief financial officer Calib Cassim said the criticality of the parastatal’s financials have reached their peak, prompting government to step in with the R23 billion in financial support over the next three years, plus an additional R59 billion over the next two.
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On top of this, Eskom has debt of R440 billion, with Cassim saying cash from operations was not enough to service the debt, which was R69 billion in the 2018/2019 financial year and will increase to R84 billion in 2019/2020.

He said that current cash from operations of R25 billion would only decrease the debt servicing costs to R59 billion and this reduction would be eroded by the additional R41 billion costs to the funding of the new build plants Kusile and Medupi.

But now the R46 billion of funding that Eskom has been able to raise plus the R49 billion lifeline from Treasury made up of February’s R23 billion and the latest R26 billion shows that “it was necessary and required to ensure that [Eskom] can meet its commitments and operate as a going concern for the next 12 to 18 months”.
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Article pointing out that Eskom's woes are symptomatic of broader South African issues: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opi...arallels-between-sas-woes-and-those-of-eskom/
First, and unavoidably, growth is weak. South Africa is not growing. This was clearly reflected in the 1.8% contraction in electricity volumes during the year, led by a 4.7% decline in electricity utilised by the mining industry and lower residential usage. Therefore, despite the 5.8% increase in price that Eskom was granted by the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa), lower consumption led to a smaller increase in revenue.
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Second, most of South Africa’s municipalities are very poorly run. For years, municipalities have layered on expenses, inadequately invested in maintenance and used electricity revenues to pay their other bills. The result is Eskom’s municipal arrears rose by almost R10-billion to R40-billion. The payment level from municipalities to Eskom is at 81%. In Soweto, which Eskom services directly, the payment level is a paltry 12.5%.
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Third, employee costs are too high. Despite an awful financial situation, employee costs rose by 13% during the year, driven by the unaffordable wage settlement signed in May 2018. Eskom employs too many people – and there appears to be zero political will to solve this issue. The same can be said for the government of South Africa.
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South Africa should be using the current environment to curtail costs (by cutting unproductive public servants) and boosting revenues (by providing policy certainty to boost growth).

The ANC’s internal politics seem to make both of these unlikely – much like the politics seem to make it impossible for Eskom to cut costs, commit to the energy transition and reduce its coal dependency. Without those decisions, Eskom will not become sustainable. Instead, the latest cash infusion from the National Treasury will be gleefully swallowed by the same black hole that has devoured hundreds of billions of rand in recent years – without any uptick in output.
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If Eskom could recover all outstanding debt from government and municipalities (Soweto), then maybe it would be a different picture.
 
Gordon_R said:
Article pointing out that Eskom's woes are symptomatic of broader South African issues: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opi...arallels-between-sas-woes-and-those-of-eskom/
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Everyone talks so much about the huge debt
But
No-one is saying who the debt is owed to ?

Can someone / anyone please point out WHERE ALL this money is going ?
I appreciate that Eskom is holding the country to ransom
But
WHO is holding Eskom to ransom ?

Money does NOT just "vanish / disappear" ( although it may seem like that ! )
 
Time to increase our stockpile of fuel for the generator, wood for the braai / fire and a few extra gas cylinders...
 
MidnightWizard said:
Everyone talks so much about the huge debt
But
No-one is saying who the debt is owed to ?

Can someone / anyone please point out WHERE ALL this money is going ?
I appreciate that Eskom is holding the country to ransom
But
WHO is holding Eskom to ransom ?

Money does NOT just "vanish / disappear" ( although it may seem like that ! )
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Nobody's holding Eskom to ransom, they voluntarily borrowed all they could when they couldn't pay their debt or there wasn't enough to steal anymore.

And drop the hysterics the money didn't disappear into thin air it was simply stolen.
 
MidnightWizard said:
Everyone talks so much about the huge debt
But
No-one is saying who the debt is owed to ?

[snip]
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Lots of investors and institutions, its called the: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_market
The bond market (also debt market or credit market) is a financial market where participants can issue new debt, known as the primary market, or buy and sell debt securities, known as the secondary market. This is usually in the form of bonds, but it may include notes, bills, and so on.
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Nothign new - expected it for a while now. This is why we should try to move as off-grid as possible. I have enough solar panels mounted but a kuk inverter and battery. It does reduce my draw from the grid during the day since we have a lot of sunlight.

Any advice on the inverter and batteries that won't cost an arm and a leg?
 
Happy Days said:
If Eskom could recover all outstanding debt from government and municipalities (Soweto), then maybe it would be a different picture.
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:ROFL: that ship sailed MANY years ago. government debt to eskom is a drop in the ocean. Wouldn't make even a dent in the huge ocean of debt Eskom is happily pissing into.
 
Shaun108 said:
Nothign new - expected it for a while now. This is why we should try to move as off-grid as possible. I have enough solar panels mounted but a kuk inverter and battery. It does reduce my draw from the grid during the day since we have a lot of sunlight.

Any advice on the inverter and batteries that won't cost an arm and a leg?
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Generator or Inverter for residential use?

Have evacuated tubes already so they are just going to do a swap out and reconnect the evacuated tubes. They are also going to connect the heatpump that no longer works so I can just swap it out when I've got funds for a replacement heatpump. Edit: Previous element was 3kw and new one is 4kw...
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
 
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