- Eskom power utility’s budget to buy diesel is running on empty.
- Eskom burns 9 million litres of diesel per day.
Eskom’s finances paint a dismal picture as the ailing power utility’s budget to buy diesel is almost empty. Eskom needs billions more to keep the country’s power on after spending R12 billion on diesel this year alone.
Initially, the budget to buy diesel was R6.1 billion but was later revised to R11.1 billion. As a result, it ended at just over R12 billion, leaving Eskom’s financials in dire straits.
This was revealed during a media briefing by Eskom chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer recently as the country is plunged into more dark days of load shedding.
Oberholzer said, “We will be forced to implement load shedding because we do not have money to burn diesel at the rate we have been doing up until now.”
It was reported that Eskom burns 9 million litres of diesel daily to keep the country’s lights on and has a massive debt of R400 billion.