Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations has adopted the 2023 Eskom Debt Relief Bill.
The conditions included the power utility not taking on any new debt for the next five years. When Eskom’s top brass appeared before the committee earlier this week, they told MPs that the relief would give the power utility space in which to invest in generation capacity.
Committee members from the EFF Natasha Ntlangwini and DA’s Ashor Sarupen objected to the adoption of the bill, before committee chairperson, Sifiso Buthelezi, closed the meeting.
“Chair please note abstention of EFF, chair please not objection of DA. Let’s note the abstention of EFF and objection of DA. The 2023 Eskom Debt Relief Bill is duly adopted. The Bill is going to be referred to the National Assembly.”
The R254 billion amounts to 60% of Eskom’s debt. The power utility’s overall debt amounts to R422 billion.
The R254 billion debt relief has two components.
The first is R184 billion, which represents Eskom’s entire medium-term three-tranche debt settlement. An amount of R78 billion will be allocated for 2023/24, R66 billion for 2024/25, R40 billion for 2025/26.
This total debt will be in the form of loans to be converted into Eskom’s ordinary shares issued to government as approved by the Minister of Finance in each fiscal year.
The second one is a direct take-over of up to R70 billion of Eskom’s loan portfolio in 2025/26.
