By Anathi Madubela
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s utility Eskom reported its first full‑year profit in eight years on Tuesday, helped by government debt relief, higher tariffs and a sharp reduction in power cuts.
The state-owned company’s power cuts have held back South Africa’s economic growth for more than a decade, and its repeated bailouts have drained state coffers.
But the frequency of its outages has reduced dramatically since early last year due to a sudden turnaround in the performance of its coal-fired power station fleet.
There were just 13 days of power cuts in its latest financial year, compared to a record 329 days a year earlier.
Eskom made a profit after tax of 16.0 billion rand ($927.24 million) in the year to the end of March 2025, compared to a 55.0 billion rand loss a year earlier.
The company said it would reinvest profits into its infrastructure, targeting 320 billion rand of investments over the next five years.
The biggest threat to its future remains the debt owed to Eskom by municipalities and metropolitan areas, which make up 42% of its sales.
Municipal debt stood at 103.5 billion rand in August, up from 94.6 billion rand in March this year and 74.4 billion rand in March 2024.
“No organisation would survive if it is not paid for its services. By 2030 the arrears will be over 300 billion rand,” Eskom’s Chief Financial Officer Calib Cassim told a press conference.
An audit report said there were still concerns about Eskom’s viability as a business, citing rising municipal debt among other factors.
($1 = 17.2555 rand)
(Reporting by Anathi Madubela;Additional reporting by Sfundo Parakozov;Editing by Alexander Wining and Lisa Shumaker)
