BY PHAKAMISA NDZAMELA –
AS TALK of a sale of “non-strategic government assets” to strengthen Eskom’s balance sheet went into overdrive last week, I wondered whether the government was now looking to “sell the roof to pay the rent”, to borrow a phrase used in the South African Communist Party in the 1990s.
Many of you will remember that the National Treasury issued a statement last month that read, in part: “An allocation of funding will be given to Eskom to help relieve the impact on electricity consumers, as well as add additional support to Eskom’s balance sheet, which needs to be strengthened. This will be funded from leveraging non-strategic government assets. Details in this regard will be provided by the minister of finance as part of budget announcements.”
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