The opposition accuses the ruling party of trying to downplay the true extent of the electricity crisis while election season is upon us.
In a statement on Thursday, the DA said Finance Minister Tito Mboweni had, without much fanfare, handed parliament the details of a R17.652 billion “emergency” bailout of Eskom.
“Minister Mboweni indicates in his report that the amount was limited to R17.652 billion by Section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act , which limits such ’emergency’ funding to a maximum of 2 percent of the appropriated national budget. This clearly indicates that the cash crisis at Eskom is far worse than the R17.652 billion and that the amount would have been far greater had this limitation contained in Section 16 not existed or was higher.
Lees said he had written to Yunus Carrim, the chair of the standing committee on finance, to request such a liquidity briefing.“It has long been public knowledge that Eskom is bankrupt,” said Lees. “The entity had run out of cash to keep its operations going a long time ago and has been fighting to keep providing electricity desperately needed to keep economic activity going and to avoid a recession.
Lees said none of this could have come as a surprise to Mboweni, and the matter should have been handled before the fifth democratic parliament was officially dissolved.
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