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Eskom’s $1.46 Billion Blowout Strains South Africa’s Finances

(Bloomberg) --South Africa’s debt-stricken state power utility reported a record loss of 20.7 billion rand ($1.46 billion) on Tuesday, highlighting the severity of the threat it poses to the nation’s economy.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s loss for the year through March widened from 2.3 billion rand the year before as power sales generated insufficient income to cover its operating costs and interest payments. The utility, which generates about 95% of the nation’s electricity, had amassed net debt of 430.8 billion rand at the end of the financial year and the government is giving it a 128 billion-rand bailout over the next three fiscal years to keep it afloat.

The release of the results at the utility’s Johannesburg headquarters comes on the eve of Phakamani Hadebe’s departure as chief executive officer — he announced he was quitting two months ago because he said the “unimaginable demands” of the job were taking a toll on his health. Eskom Chairman Jabu Mabuza will also take on the role of acting CEO while a permanent replacement is sought, a process the utility said will be concluded within three months.

The delayed appointment, along with the stalled announcement of a chief restructuring officer to oversee plans to split Eskom into three operating units and restructure its debt, illustrates the difficulties the government has faced in recruiting suitably qualified and politically acceptable candidates to turn the utility around.

Besides not selling enough power, Eskom has thousands more workers than it says it needs and is confronting massive cost overruns at two new partially completed coal-fired plants. The nation’s powerful labor unions, which played a key role in helping President Cyril Ramaphosa win power, oppose staff cuts and breaking it up into generation, distribution and transmission units under a state holding company, fearing that will be a precursor to privatization.

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