Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has asked the Speaker to grant an extension to Eskom, Denel and SAA to submit their audited financial statements after they missed the deadline.
The law requires that departments and State-Owned Entities have to submit their financial statements to Parliament by the end of September.
However, Eskom, Denel and SAA missed the deadline and Gordhan said this was because of various issues in the financial statements of these State-Owned Entities.
“Eskom, SAA, Denel and Alexkor have not been able to finalise and submit their respective annual reports to me within the prescribed time-lines. Eskom's external auditors have identified matters that still need further investigations and/or attention. Eskom anticipates that the (annual financial statements) will be finalised during October 2023.
“SAA has indicated that the audit had begun later than expected and may only be finalised after the outstanding audits for the previous financial years are completed. Denel has indicated that the audit will only be finalised in November 2023,” said Gordhan in his letter to the Speaker.
He said the annual reports with audited financial statements of these SOEs will be tabled as soon the outstanding issues are finalised.
Eskom is expected to incur a loss of R21.5 billion for the last financial year. In the first quarter of 2023 Eskom has already suffered a loss of R5bn.
The power utility is also trying to put the lights on. But Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe said Eskom will need more than R250bn to expand transmission lines.
But Eskom’s balance sheet is not able to finance this massive project and Ramokgopa was speaking to business in the JSE two weeks ago where he raised the issue of investing in grid expansion projects.
Mantashe said they also need to focus on expanding the grid in coastal provinces of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape.
There are a number of renewable projects in those provinces, but could not be connected to the grid because of a lack of capacity.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics