The South African government has granted Eskom, the struggling power utility, a two-year exemption from reporting irregular spending. The decision was announced in a government gazette on 31 March 2023, in an attempt to safeguard the company’s credit rating.
Eskom’s auditor, Deloitte & Touche, previously revealed irregular expenditure, losses due to criminal conduct, as well as fruitless and wasteful costs in December. Consequently, Deloitte stated that Eskom may be unable to maintain its operations. Eskom is rated with CCC+, which is one of the lower credit ratings that can be handed to a company by the credit rating agency, S&P Global Ratings. The Treasury has yet to respond to requests for further comment, while Deloitte has declined to comment at the current time.
So the Govt has no confidence in Eskom either - just allowing them to bypass rules. This is not a path to fix the problems.