Investing31.10.2023

Bankrupt Eskom plans to spend millions on new logo

Eskom has launched a multi-million-rand tender to design a new company logo and develop a new corporate identity.

The Eskom tender document states it needs a new corporate identity to represent its new structure with three independent subsidiaries — Generation, Transmission, and Distribution.

Eskom asked agencies to apply to design, develop, and implement a new corporate identity for the entities below.

  • National Transmission Company of South Africa
  • National Distribution Company of South Africa
  • Potential Eskom NewCo
  • Any other Eskom Group of companies in the future

Although price details have not been disclosed, Eskom asked agencies who tendered for the project to assume a budget of R5 million per entity in their presentations.

This multi-million tender has extensive requirements, including designing a slew of printed and digital assets, marketing material, and online assets.

The cost of designing and executing a new logo and corporate identity for Eskom is only the tip of the iceberg.

To rebrand, a company has to change the logo on all its buildings, digital assets, printed materials, and much more. It will cost a fortune.

Ghaleb Cachalia, the DA’s public enterprises spokesperson, slated Eskom’s decision considering its financial position.

DA's Deputy Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry, Ghaleb Cachalia during the 2019 South African State of the Nation Address at Parliament in Cape Town.

Ghaleb Cachalia during the 2019 South African State of the Nation Address at Parliament in Cape Town. CC BY-ND 4.0: Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp

“Eskom has been bankrupt for a while now and has been kept afloat by taxpayer-funded bailouts, the most recent of which was the R254 billion Eskom debt takeover by the government – which will worsen the country’s already precarious debt burden,” he said.

“It is therefore simply astounding that Eskom sees a logo change as a priority when they are literally surviving on taxpayer money.”

Cachalia said the rebrand is a completely unnecessary vanity project that contributes nothing towards solving South Africa’s load-shedding crisis.

“Consumers are struggling to pay their electricity bills after Eskom imposed a 31,4% tariff increase over two years, yet Eskom sees it prudent to use their money for a new corporate logo.”

He called on the acting Eskom CEO, Calib Cassim, to immediately rescind this tender as it amounts to frivolous expenditure.

“With Eskom warning that load-shedding can be introduced on short notice, it is astounding that their priority is a logo change,” he said.

“Instead of looking to increase generation capacity and do away with load-shedding permanently, Eskom thinks it is necessary to focus on sprucing up their image.”

He said the millions associated with the logo and rebranding contract could be better spent elsewhere.


A version of this article was first published by Daily Investor and is reproduced with permission.

Now read: Great news for Eskom load-shedding

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