The controversial R52 billion bailout that was earlier this year debated in parliament and widely dismissed and discredited as another massive drain on taxpayers to provide a lifeline for Eskom, is a step closer to being paid over to the parastatal.
This comes after it was announced that parliament had approved the Special Appropriation Bill, the intensely contested piece of legislation that will pave the way for the lifeline.
It will then be debated in the National Council of Provinces before being signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Although the bill has been blasted by opposition politicians as being a government-led attempt to loot more money through the power utility, a central entity in the state capture saga, it comes with several demands.
One of these is that a new CEO for Eskom must be appointed within the first month of the bill being ratified.
Another is that, as per earlier reports, Eskom be split into three separate entities.
Speaking in parliament after the bill was approved, finance minister Tito Mboweni said “Eskom’s problems go beyond money”.
He said the financing should be administered under the strictest of oversight procedures.
The DA, who have been the bill’s most vociferous critics, said the bill was “a blank cheque that rewards the culture of state capture and theft”.
