Procurement rules and liquidity constraints hold back Eskom’s maintenance roll-out

Liquidity constraints and procurement problems continue to impede Eskom’s reliability maintenance recovery (RMR) programme, with CEO Andre de Ruyter reporting that South Africa’s public procurement rules have undercut the utility’s efforts to swiftly appoint the competent contractors needed to undertake the programme. In a briefing hosted during another bout of Stage 4 load-shedding – which is expected to be de-escalated to Stage 3 on Wednesday and then Stage 2 on Friday, before being cancelled entirely over the weekend – De Ruyter said the procurement system “really does not lend itself to this type of maintenance programme”.