Troubled State-owned power utility Eskom warned on Thursday that its record R20-billion loss of 2018/19 would be repeated in 2019/20 and said that planned cost-savings and already-secured fiscal transfers would have to be accompanied by debt relief and further tariff hikes if the debt-laden group were to be returned to a sustainable financial position. Eskom’s debt stood at more than R454-billion at the end of September and interest payments would balloon in the current financial year to R38-billion, making them the utility’s second-largest cost item after coal procurement, which would come in a R55-billion. Eskom would have to repay total debt of R86-billion, including a repayment of R48-billion in capital.
