Mboweni also said that the appropriate size of debt relief would only be negotiated once he was satisfied with progress made to implement the government’s decisions.

Spokesperson for Energy Partners, James McKay, said in a statement in response to the minister's speech that solving the Eskom challenge was complex, and involved "a long road of painful trade-offs" and that it would require time to show positive results. 

“Eskom is a vital component to the country’s energy future and we therefore support the turnaround plan that was presented to Parliament yesterday (Wednesday)" McKay said. 

"However, this plan will take a long time to have any real effect in its current form and South Africa cannot afford to keep bailing the SOE out.

“We cannot get away from the fact that South Africa has an urgent energy crisis, and while Eskom’s recovery is crucial, the proposed turn-around time-frames don’t match the need," McKay said. 

"It would therefore make sense to widen the scope of potential solutions and involve the resources available in the private sector in the solution-set.”

McKay said that accelerating the strategy laid out in the Integrated Resource Plan, and reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuel should also be considered.

He said that the private sector was a key addition to realising this strategy, as it had access to significant funding and was already spearheading the majority of the technological innovations needed to restore stability to the national grid.  

“Many businesses have already become exceedingly efficient at generating and managing renewable energy,” McKay said.

African News Agency