New documents seen by the Sunday Times reveal how a Gupta-linked company purchased an auditing firm in order to loot from Eskom.<\/p>\n
The report stated that Trillian bought an auditing firm \u2013 Nkonki \u2013 which had existing contracts with the state owned company.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrillian and its former owner, Salim Essa, allegedly used Mitesh Patel, a minority shareholder in the black-owned Nkonki auditing firm, as a front,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Nkonki had auditing contracts with Transnet and Eskom, and following Trillian’s acquisition, it secured several new contracts with Eskom.<\/p>\n
The report noted that several \u201cGupta supporters\u201d were on Eskom\u2019s board at the time when these contracts were arranged.<\/p>\n
The purchase of the auditing firm, and it securing contracts with state entities, was part of the Guptas\u2019 plan to capture SOEs.<\/p>\n
Price hikes<\/strong><\/p>\n Energy regulator Nersa recently granted Eskom a range of price hikes, to be implemented in April, in order to claw back some money for the struggling entity.<\/p>\n The government has promised to plow R23 billion a year into Eskom over the next three years to help the utility meet repayments on its R420 billion debt burden.<\/p>\n Nersa granted the firm the following tariff increases over the next three years:<\/p>\n Eskom pleaded with Nersa, and the country, to allow the price hikes, saying that it was losing R500 million every month.<\/p>\n According to CFO Calib Cassim, Eskom needs R200 billion a year to operate \u2013 and that it would lose R2 billion for every 1% of the requested hike that Nersa would not grant it.<\/p>\n He said that unless Eskom can make more money through sales (from higher tariffs), even if it gets another R100 billion bailout from government, it will just get wiped out by debt servicing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using one credit card to pay back the other credit card,\u201d Cassim said.<\/p>\n Load-shedding<\/strong><\/p>\n Blackouts in South Africa intensified to a maximum level on Saturday, and will continue into Sunday after the state power utility said it lost additional generation, including electricity imports from Mozambique.<\/p>\n The power cuts, first implemented over the weekend to replenish water and diesel designed for surplus generation, were raised to so-called Stage 4, removing 4,000 megawatts from the grid, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd said in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n Eskom\u2019s operational and financial woes stem from years of mismanagement and massive cost overruns on two new coal-fired power stations that should have been completed in 2015, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n The utility is seen as one of the biggest risks to the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n The loss of additional capacity included a reduction of electricity imports from neighboring Mozambique.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation remains tight and volatile and we may have to implement further load-shedding should the situation deteriorate,\u201d Eskom said.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving lost capacity from Mozambique earlier today, Eskom lost an additional 900 megawatts\u201d due to a line fault, the utility said.<\/p>\n Stage 4 power cuts, the highest degree that has been implemented by the utility, reflects the unreliability of aging coal stations, a reliance on imports and defects in even the newest plants built, Bloomberg said.<\/p>\n Eskom said in a further statement on Sunday that it is continuing with rotational loadshedding to build up necessary water reserves in the pump storage scheme.<\/p>\n “We are currently loadshedding at Stage 2. The stage will shift to Stage 4 from 08h00 till 23h00,” it said.<\/p>\n #POWERALERT<\/a> 4 Eskom to loadshed throughout the night and all day on Sunday @CityPowerJhb<\/a> @eThekwiniM<\/a> @CityPowerJhb<\/a> @IOL<\/a> @CityTshwane<\/a> @SABCNewsOnline<\/a> @ewnupdates<\/a> @TimesLIVE<\/a> @MangaungCity<\/a> @CityofCT<\/a> @News24<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/FqxaBofAbe<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) March 16, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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\nDate: 16 March 2019<\/p>\n