Power utility Eskom says a bank loan is not its only option to get money to pay for diesel for its gas generators until the end of the month.
Eskom spokesperson Khulu Pasiwe says one other option is the R23 billion that government has set aside to assist the electricity supplier with its cash flow.
“We are looking into a number of options. The bank loan is not is not a given…the most important thing is that people should know that the government is looking into a number of options to assist Eskom…”
Pasiwe says details of the government bailout will be properly outlined during Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s Budget Speech that will take place next week.
Meanwhile, the power utility says it is doing everything possible not to implement load shedding on Wednesday, but can’t guarantee that it will not be necessary.
“We cannot 100% say that there won’t be load shedding. It will always be there, it will be always be hanging around until we bring online at least one unit of Medupi. What our engineers are doing is to make sure that they keep all the power stations that are currently online to make sure that they are running optimally and that’s why over the last two days we have not had load shedding because some of those generators are operating,” says Pasiwe.
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