South Africa just can’t understand how Eskom lost R20.7bn in a year

Stage 4 eskom souith africa rahul pexels load shedding

You might want to sit down for this one. Eskom on Tuesday added to South Africa’s economic woes and horrid news week, announcing (pdf) a loss of R20.7-billion in its 2018/19 financial year.

You did read that correctly, yes. Twenty billion, seven hundred million rand.

The troubled power utility hosted a presser in Johannesburg, chaired by recently employed acting CEO and chairman Jabu Mabuza.

Eskom blames rising costs of generation and renumeration, and booming municipal dept as major factors in its spiral. Incredibly, Soweto owes Eskom some R18-billion. And the problematic coal power plants years behind schedule, Medupi and Kusile, are 95% and 87% complete respectively. We’re not sure if that’s a positive, tbh.

Of course, the news also broke on Twitter. The social network users, already reeling after South Africa’s unemployment data was released earlier today, sunk their teeth into the state-owned enterprise’s inability to remain above water.

This tweet probably sums up best how we’re all feeling right now.

Give Eskom credit for one thing though. It’s amazing that it can somehow keep its own lights on at this point.

Feature image: Rahul via Pexels

Andy Walker, former editor
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