The most important thing for the City of Tshwane is to rescue it from financial distress, and key to this mission is maintaining energy independence, executive mayor Cilliers Brink emphasised in a keynote address during the city’s Mayoral Energy Sector Roundtable, held in Pretoria, on October 31. He pointed out that there needed to be considerable progress in energy independence to achieve financial rescue, and this therefore required one integrated project. He highlighted that the city had appointed an Energy Task Team this year, which was considering a mix of energy solutions for Tshwane to mitigate loadshedding and reduce its reliance on Eskom.
Eskom’s head of distribution Monde Bala reports that Eskom and the National Treasury are hoping that the number of municipalities participating in the Eskom Municipal Debt Relief Support Programme could rise to 67 from the 28 already approve at the start of October. The deadline for applications was extended to October 31, from an initial deadline of the end of September, to allow for further voluntary applications.
Eskom has warned that it is likely to report another R23-billion-plus loss for its current financial year to the end of March 2024, having belatedly confirmed a loss of R24-billion (R12-billion) for its 2022/23 financial year, during which loadshedding was implemented on a record 280 days. Acting CEO Calib Cassim confirmed the dismal outlook during the release of the group’s results presentation, held seven months after the group’s official year-end. As with several previous reports, the statements were also qualified by the State-owned utility’s auditors.