South Africa finds an extra $4.2 billion to help Eskom
CGTN
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South Africa is pumping more financial support into ailing state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings with an additional 59 billion rand ($4.2 billion) spread over two years.

A special appropriations bill will spread the money out over the next two years.  Eskom will get 26 billion rand will during the current fiscal year and 33 billion in 2020-21.

The funds will come from the Revenue Fund and the finance minister may impose conditions to be met by Eskom before any part of the amount is transferred.

The move comes just five months after Finance Minister Tito Mboweni authorized more than 17 billion rand for Eskom following a delay in the utility accessing funding from the China Development Bank

Mboweni is expected to discuss the bill in parliament on Tuesday.

Beyond the cash injections, South Africa is also weighing other support options for Eskom including swapping the firm’s debt for government bonds or ring-fencing it in a special account, a senior treasury official said earlier this month.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said last month the government would soon give the company a “significant portion” of the 230 billion rand it needs over the next decade to remain solvent.

Eskom is struggling under more than 440 billion rand of debt and expects to report another annual loss this month because of lagging demand and unreliable generation from aging coal plants that resulted in power outages in the first quarter.

Eskom supplies more than 90% of the country’s electricity but was forced to implement power cuts this year, fails to generate sufficient profit to meet its debt servicing costs and has required state cash injections to stay afloat.