{"id":653484,"date":"2026-06-14T15:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=653484"},"modified":"2026-06-14T16:00:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T14:00:01","slug":"eskom-before-and-after-president-cyril-ramaphosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/653484-eskom-before-and-after-president-cyril-ramaphosa.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom before and after President Cyril Ramaphosa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Eskom that President Cyril Ramaphosa inherited from former President Jacob Zuma looked very different from the entity it is today, and has managed to end load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this did not come to fruition overnight, a major policy change made by Ramaphosa in 2021 and 2022 could arguably be credited with ending load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa has been president of South Africa for more than 6 years, succeeding President Jacob Zuma, who resigned on 14 February 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zuma’s resignation followed Ramaphosa’s election as ANC President in December 2017. The National Assembly met on 15 February 2018, electing and swearing in Ramaphosa that same day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom released its annual results for the 2017\/18 financial year about a month later. The state-owned power utility recorded revenue of R177.4 billion in that year, alongside a loss after tax of R2.34 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Eskom’s gross debt and borrowings amounted to R388.7 billion, and the utility had a headcount of 48,628 employees. Its total electricity sales for the year amounted to 212,190GWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Load-shedding re-emerged for the first time in three years in June 2016, driven by coal shortages and worker strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, Eskom implemented load-shedding on 31 days, cutting approximately 469GWh of electricity demand from the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rotational power cuts worsened in the years that followed. South Africa experienced its first stage 6 load-shedding in the 2019\/20 financial year. That year, Eskom shed 1,291GWh from the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demand shed in its 2021 financial year reached 1,034GWh and climbed to 1,605GWh in 2021\/22. The worst was yet to come, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom implemented load-shedding on 280 days during its 2023 financial year, shedding approximately 13,376GWh of demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Load-shedding was more frequent in Eskom’s 2024 financial year, but less severe. The power cuts were implemented on 329 days, but the demand shed was around 13,215GWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beginning of the end of load-shedding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following years of appeals by energy experts and businesses, Ramaphosa made a pivotal move to lessen South Africa’s reliance on Eskom for electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa increased the capacity threshold before private plants required a generation licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) from 1MW to 100MW in June 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2022, he announced that the government would lift the threshold entirely. The decision took effect in January 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa said the government had decided to lift the threshold entirely due to the enthusiasm with which the private sector received the invitation to produce its own power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2026, and Nersa has registered roughly 18,000MW of large-scale private power, the bulk of which comes from photovoltaic solar plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As these projects have come online and households have increasingly adopted rooftop solar, which was also boosted by tax incentives, the demand for Eskom’s electricity has fallen substantially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 212,190GWh in its 2018 financial year, Eskom reported that its electricity sales had declined to 189,723GWh by its 2025 full-year results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom’s most recent financial performance also looked better than the last year of Zuma’s presidency. Until 2025, Eskom had not reported a full-year profit after tax since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite substantial electricity price increases, it recorded losses from 2018 to 2024. In 2025, it reported a profit of R16.05 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that came with a caveat: Eskom received R64 billion in government funding during the financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bailout helped Eskom reduce its gross debt securities and borrowings. The utility’s debt had surged from R338.7 billion in March 2018 to R412.2 billion by March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By March 2025, the debt had reduced to R372.7 billion. All things considered, Eskom is not much better off financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite nearly doubling its revenue due to above-inflation increases, it still needed government funding to reduce its debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Eskom had had to draw on its own revenue to service its debt, it would likely have incurred another loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On an operational level, Eskom is performing worse than in 2018. Its energy availability factor in 2025 was about 61.2%, compared with 78% in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure reached 65% in the year ending 31 March 2026, but is still well below what is considered a healthy level among global utilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ramaphosa’s decision to scrap licensing for large private generation facilities has ultimately helped reduce demand to the point where Eskom has been able to keep load-shedding suspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Eskom financial and operational figures \u2014 FY 2018 vs FY 2025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/th>31 March 2018<\/th>31 March 2025<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Revenue<\/strong><\/td>R177.4 billion<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>R340.9 billion<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Profit\/(loss) after tax<\/strong><\/td>(R2.34 billion)<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>R16.05 billion<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Government bailouts<\/strong><\/td>None<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>R64 billion<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Gross debt securities and borrowings<\/strong><\/td>R388.7 billion<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>R372.7 billion<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Headcount<\/strong><\/td>48,628<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>42,030<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Total electricity sales<\/strong><\/td>212,190GWh<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>189,723GWh<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Average electricity tariff<\/strong><\/td>R0.94<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>R2.12<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
EAF<\/strong><\/td>78%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>61.2%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As was the case in the three years before Ramaphosa became president, Eskom has largely avoided load-shedding in 2025 and 2026. The reasons for the lack of power cuts are very different this time around, however. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":653572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[13871,59903,74166,181,100747,2910,8487,24740,59869,63036],"class_list":["post-653484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-electricity2","tag-electricity-tariffs","tag-energy-availability-factor-eaf","tag-eskom","tag-eskom-bailouts","tag-jacob-zuma","tag-load-shedding","tag-national-energy-regulator-of-south-africa-nersa","tag-president-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-private-power-generation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653484"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653701,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653484\/revisions\/653701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}