Good morning. Today we’re covering Old Mutual’s call for the treasury to take over half of Eskom’s enormous debt, the DA has released its own energy plan, and 100 police officers have been deployed to Tembisa to quell the riots.
Treasury needs to take half of Eskom debt, says Old Mutual – Business Day (for subscribers)
Old Mutual Investment Group (OMIG) says the national treasury needs to absorb at least half of Eskom’s massive R400 billion debt burden if the power utility is to adequately lower its borrowing costs and gain a sustainable long-term financial footing.
If the treasury is to transfer some R200 billion from Eskom it would widen the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio by between 2 and 2.5 percentage points with the ratio expected to hit 72.8% in the 2022/2023 fiscal year, says OMIG chief economist Johann Els.
“A widening of SA’s overall debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to cause finance minister Enoch Godongwana to raise the threshold at which he expects the government’s gross debt to stabilise.” Read more here.
DA advances energy policy to end load shedding, provide cheap electricity and fuel – News24
Hot on the heels of government ministers who on Monday announced measures to improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations, the DA has released its version of an energy plan.
The official opposition says its plan will build an “energy secure” economy to create jobs and bring about new investment.
“The underlying premise of the DA’s policy is that, in view of the dire state of the country’s electricity generation capacity, South Africa should be making it easy, not difficult, for IPPs [independent power producers] to bring new power at scale and in the shortest possible time,” said DA MP and spokesperson on energy Kevin Mileham. Read more here.
More than 100 metro police officers deployed to Tembisa after deadly riots – Daily Maverick
Tensions remain high in Tembisa after riots killed at least four people on Monday with the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department dispatching around 100 officers to the area, says Frans Mmoko, the Ekurhuleni MMC for Community Safety.
The deployment of officers to the area comes after a violent 48 hours where infrastructure was destroyed as residents protest against what they call unreasonable water and electricity tariff increases. Read more here.
Here’s what else we’re reading today:
Sasol restarts refinery after outage – ramps up production – BusinessTech
Eskom hopes to quickly restore broken units to avoid load shedding – EWN
‘China export ban on SA wool is killing jobs, government must step in’ – EWN
Tembisa protests, Krugersdorp anger raise fears – Mail & Guardian
Constitutional court upholds ban on foreigners practising law in South Africa – Mail & Guardian
‘Cheap labour drives illegal mining’ – SABC News
South Africa calls for more streaming regulation – Biz News
South Africa’s richest man Johann Rupert gains $1 billion in July as investors react to Richemont’s Q1 results – Billionaires Africa
Twitter Subpoenas Musk Deal Investors, Digs Into Andreessen, VCs – Bloomberg
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Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
