Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), a lobby group for large corporations, has welcomed Eskom’s improved generating performance as well as its return to profitability. 

Writing on its website, BLSA said: “The significant improvement in performance of its [Eskom’s] main fleet [which] has enabled it to not only be a more reliable supplier of electricity, but also to use the OCGTs [open cycle gas turbines which are expensive to run in South Africa as they chiefly burn diesel] much less. The reduction in load shedding, while hugely beneficial to the whole economy, has also been good for Eskom’s revenue.” 

According to BLSA: “The performance improvement has been helped considerably by the National Electricity Crisis Committee [a joint public-private committee established to help stabilise South Africa’s electricity position] and efforts to support the improvement in plant performance.” 

Under that committee: “Over 350 private sector experts were mobilised…and they have put over 12 000 hours of expertise into Eskom and other companies in the electricity supply value chain…The 98% reduction in load shedding between 2023 and 2025 is the fruit of this effort.” 

BLSA also said that: “Eskom’s return to profitability after eight years offers some welcome positive news for the power utility and the broader economy…[Eskom’s] financial results released last month, [which] showed it made a profit before tax of R23.9 bn. It is the first time the utility has posted a profit in eight years…Overall, Eskom managed to grow revenue by 15% while reducing the cost of primary energy by 14%.” 

However, BLSA also flagged three major concerns. 

The first was that: “Eskom’s energy availability factor, which improved from 54.6% in 2024 to 60.6%, was still behind the target for the year of 65%. Next year, the target is 70%, so much more effort is going to be required [the availability factor measures what share of Eskom’s plants are producing the power they should].” 

The second is that municipal debt owed to Eskom: “climbed 27% during the period to R94.6 bn. The hard work that National Treasury has put into the municipal debt relief programme is not resulting in an improvement in municipal payments. One astounding statistic in its integrated annual report is that average debtor days for municipalities are now at a record 216. Ten years ago, it was 43 days. This is a serious problem that goes way beyond Eskom. The utility will never be able to achieve financial stability when a large part of its customer base simply doesn’t pay.” 

The third was that: “Eskom’s auditors again had a qualified audit opinion on the financial statements. This is despite Eskom having set up an audit recovery programme after the 2024 audit resulted in a qualification. Clean audits are the minimum expectation that the public should have for the performance of state institutions.” 

Overall, BLSA said: “This year’s results show that Eskom is getting a grip on its many performance challenges, with significant improvements in many areas of how the utility is run. That can start to rebuild confidence from the public and other stakeholders that the SOE [state-owned enterprise] has a clear future as an efficient and competitive electricity producer.”