South Africa: Eskom `won`t learn from crisis`

28 August, 2009 in South Africa

source: Fin24
2009/08/27 05:43:00 PM

Cape Town – The “shocking” R9.7bn loss posted by Eskom this week was the result of years of bad management, the Cape Chamber of Commerce said on Thursday.

In the five years before the blackouts started, Eskom made a profit of R33.5bn, said chamber director Albert Schuitmaker.

Most of that money had gone to the government in taxes and dividends instead of being used to improve maintenance, train staff and preserve coal stocks.

Now the picture was one of declining reserve margins of electricity, while stocks of coal were run down to the point where the country had been plunged into darkness.

“Eskom produced some great balance sheets, but it is now clear that they concealed more than they revealed,” he said.

Some people were trying to blame the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for [continue reading]

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