Labour federation Cosatu met with government, business, community and labour leaders on Monday (3 February) to present its plan to rescue debt-stricken Eskom. Key to this plan is the use of civil servant pensions and a state-run unemployment fund to cut Eskom’s debt by about R254 billion, which would then leave the power utility with a sum of around R200 billion to service, which Eskom has previously said it can manage as it currently struggles to cover its daily running costs.

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The presentation was largely welcomed by the business sector, however the two groups did not agree on all of the issues presented, Bloomberg reported. Martin Kingston, vice president of Business Unity South Africa, said that the business community is in alignment with Cosatu on many of Eskom’s problems that the labour federation identified, though they’re not in agreement on all of the proposals.

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With banks and other financiers becoming increasingly reluctant to fund the utility, there is a willingness to consider development-finance institutions and other bodies like the state pension fund manager – the Public Investment Corporation – as sources of finance, he said.

“The pool of capital is shrinking rapidly. Within those constraints we are more than happy, very happy and keen to work with Cosatu and other social partners such as government to resolve Eskom’s debt problems,” Kingston said.

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