Andrew
Key South African government ministers have reached a broad agreement to sell some of the state power utility’s coal-fired power plants to help reduce its debt burden, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said.
The accord comes two years after the plan was first raised in a National Treasury policy paper, which suggested the facilities could bring in as much as R450 billion.
Eskom’s total debt stood at R402 billion at the end of March. Eskom supplies almost all of South Africa’s electricity, most of it from coal-fired plants that make it the world’s biggest emitter of the pollutant sulphur dioxide. Disposing of the facilities will require buy-in from Eskom management, which may resist the planned sale because of the impact it would have on the utility’s balance sheet, Mr Godongwana said.
Mr Godongwana suggested that selling the plants would put Eskom in a better position to finance its planned shift to cleaner energy. — Bloomberg.
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