Local firms to be allocated at least half of Eskom spend

Johannesburg, South Africa — ESI-AFRICA.COM — 16 February 2011 – At least R220-billion of the R549-billion that Eskom will spend on its build programme between now and 2017 will go to local companies, with black economic empowerment (BEE) companies expected to earn about R132 billion of the local component figure.

Revealing this here, Eskom spokeswoman Hilary Joffe said that up to 40% of Eskom’s capital expenditure was local, and this was mainly for civil, mechanical and electrical work. “Of the local spending, more than 60% is BEE,” she added.

Meanwhile Business Report quoted SA Institute of Electrical Engineers business director Stan Bridgens as saying that while its members expected to benefit from the capital expenditure programme “we should not be blind to the skills shortage that we have”. “This is not only confined to South Africa,” he said. “There might not be enough people to take advantage of the money being spent.”

“We are concerned about the schooling system that has not been producing proper material for maths and science.”

Yesterday, Transport Minister Sbusiso Ndebele, in his capacity as chairman of the infrastructure development cluster, said the country would need additional investment in new electricity generating capacity by the private sector over the next few years up to the delivery of the first unit of the Medupi power station.

Joffe said no decision had been taken on capital expenditure beyond the completion of Kusile in 2017. Eskom’s capacity expansion budget was expected to rise to more than R1 trillion by 2026, by which time it will have doubled its capacity to 80 000MW.