Economist Dawie Roodt says Eskom’s generation and distribution divisions are slowly dying, like South African Airways (SAA) and the South African Post Office (SAPO).
Roodt made these comments during a Firstpathway Partners webinar.
‘Only the transmission part will remain, and the rest of Eskom will just slowly die and come to an end’, he said.
Roodt explained that Eskom is completely bankrupt. ‘It has been operationally and financially run into the ground. It does not work anymore’.
Eskom currently owes around R420 billion. Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, announced that the state will take over between R150 and R160 billion of this debt.
The reason he gave for the government taking over Eskom’s debt is because it cannot survive financially.
About 40,000 people work at Eskom with an average salary of R70,000 per month.
In 2022 Eskom employees received a 7% increase. ‘It is irresponsible. These workers are already overpaid’, he said.
Eskom’s collapse also means that it cannot provide enough electricity to keep the lights on, hampering economic growth.
Roodt said the government is trying to run things they cannot run, causing things to collapse.
He explained that SAA had ten turnaround plans, which all failed. ‘The company was ultimately run into the ground financially and operationally’.
“The same is currently happening to the South African Post Office. It is simply coming to an end. It is under provisional liquidation, and it is also just dying.”
He doesn’t think the Post Office can be rescued, even with the new turnaround plan, which requires another R10 billion bailout. All its previous turnaround plans failed. ‘Whatever the new plan is, it will also not work’, Roodt said.
He predicted that Eskom will slowly die and the private sector will take over its functions.