Eskom posts record loss

[Gordon_R]

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.

They key factor is the amount of interest being paid on the outstanding debt. There is no hope of ever repaying the full debt amount...

 

[Former member 61586]

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?

unfortunately the good stuff costs big bucks. and guess what......its just going to get more and more expensive as demand increases, because....well greed and capitalism. also stuck on a 24v system with gel batteries. but it keeps the lights on during loadshedding and basically runs my house and pool pump mahala during the day.

 

[Former member 61586]

They key factor is the amount of interest being paid on the outstanding debt. There is no hope of ever repaying the full debt amount...

exactly. the outstanding municipal debt will cover the interest for a few months and make no significant difference to the outstanding capital debt.

 

[Johnatan56]

exactly. the outstanding municipal debt will cover the interest for a few months and make no significant difference to the outstanding capital debt.

Indirectly it probably would as it would probably allow for Eskom to not increase tariffs by as much, which could increase sales / not decrease sales further as municipalities and individuals move to self-generation as it's cheaper.

 

[Paul_S]

116 employees implicated in stealing have left.
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/e...-and-procurement-disciplinary-hearings-2019-7

This is totally unacceptable!
So guilty employees can just resign and their theft (which borders on acts of treason) is forgotten?
They should be hunted down, prosecuted and have all their possesions attached and sold to help recover the losses.

Maybe then it will start to instill some behavioural changes and people will think twice before committing acts of theft and corruption. What Eskom are doing is barely a slap on the wrist compared to the economic impact caused to the country.

 

[TheChamp]

This is totally unacceptable!
So guilty employees can just resign and their theft (which borders on acts of treason) is forgotten?
They should be hunted down, prosecuted and have all their possesions attached and sold to help recover the losses.

Maybe then it will start to instill some behavioural changes and people will think twice before committing acts of theft and corruption. What Eskom are doing is barely a slap on the wrist compared to the economic impact caused to the country.

No its not forgotten, resigning does not make you immune to prosecution.

 

[itareanlnotani]

unfortunately the good stuff costs big bucks. and guess what......its just going to get more and more expensive as demand increases, because....well greed and capitalism. also stuck on a 24v system with gel batteries. but it keeps the lights on during loadshedding and basically runs my house and pool pump mahala during the day.

Well, actually prices have come down, but our currency has gone down also.

I'm paying similar pricing for what I bought panels in for 10 years ago now, although the rand was R6=$1 at the time, and now its R16ish=$1 (actually R15.51=$1 today).

If the ANC hadn't stolen trillions, and we weren't heavily loaded into debt, and laws were more sane (BEE, etc) then its likely we would still be around that level, and things would be less.

They didn't, so imports are expensive.
Be happy that imports are cheaper than last year when we were at R19=$1

So, in real world, pricing has come down 230% over the last 10 years for panels, however in rand terms, the pricing has stayed the same. Blame the ANC, not importers.

 

[Paul_S]

No its not forgotten, resigning does not make you immune to prosecution.

Why are we not seeing news about houses and cars being seized in the news? It's no good if it takes 10 or 15 years to prosecute the offenders by which time they will have squirrelled all those ill gotten gains into safe hiding places.

 

[TheChamp]

Why are we not seeing news about houses and cars being seized in the news? It's no good if it takes 10 or 15 years to prosecute the offenders by which time they will have squirrelled all those ill gotten gains into safe hiding places.

I am sure there is so much news that following up on each and every case at Eskom would be impossible, you also don't have enough time to monitor the news so that you are up to speed with everything happening everywhere.

I do occasionally come across news about Eskom employees but I am also not actively monitoring those so I am sure I am missing a couple. Law enforcement will also be prioritizing the cases they are going for as going after all of them at once will not be possible.

Here's one involving former employees who clearly did not benefit from resigning. https://www.news24.com/fin24/econom...rrested-former-eskom-senior-managers-20191219

 

[RonSwanson]

Why are we not seeing news about houses and cars being seized in the news? It's no good if it takes 10 or 15 years to prosecute the offenders by which time they will have squirrelled all those ill gotten gains into safe hiding places.

Government only recently established the "Special Tribunal on Corruption, Fraud and Illicit Money Flows", which is supposed to be able to do this. Note that it only covers State Institutions, and that it enables the tribunal to institute civil proceedings to recover funds from individuals. In some cases it has been quite heartening, because where people have resigned, the tribunal has been able to interdict the GEPF and the Government Pensions Administration Agency from paying pension benefits to those that have resigned.
But like all laws in this country, I am sure that it will soon only be selectively applied, because it requires the head of the SIU to instruct the tribunal. With all the stealing and corruption it is only a matter of time before they start "prioritising" which crimes to follow up on.

Edit: Also important to note that this will not include the so-called fruitless’, ‘wasteful’, ‘irregular’ and ‘unauthorised’ expenditure. That's all still good for the cadres.