eskomBloomberg reports that according to state-owned power utility Eskom, it will take as long as three to five years to comply with the government’s plan to split the company into three separate units as part of a rescue plan.  

President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated in February that the company would be divided into generation, transmission and distribution units to make it more manageable.  “Eskom ran out of cash and came close to complete collapse on multiple occasions in 2019.  Eskom’s importance to South Africa is the only reason why the company still exists,” Jabu Mabuza, the company’s interim executive chairman and chief executive officer, said in a presentation made Thursday to the company’s top 500 managers.  Under the plan presented by Mabuza, Eskom would split into the three units at an operating level in 12 to 18 months.  The legal separation would occur in two to four years and the transmission unit would become a standalone state-owned company within three to five years.  Generation and distribution would remain under an Eskom holding company.


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