South Africa’s government will announce within a month how it plans to fix Eskom Holdings, the embattled state utility that supplies more than 90% of the nation’s power. There are no easy remedies. The company is R419-billion in debt, is losing money hand over fist, has way more staff than it needs and its aging and poorly maintained plants can’t always produce enough power to meet declining demand – a predicament that’s known in the industry as a death spiral. While a cash injection would help, relief would likely only be temporary and more deep-seated structural reforms are needed to turn it into a sustainable business. Eskom has installed generating capacity of about 47 000 MW, but less than three quarters of that is available.
