Investment Insights - Eskom’s strategy to keep the lights on

A reliable and cost-effective electricity supply is a critical success factor for the performance of the South African economy. Lack of a reliable electricity supply was probably the key factor behind the poor mining and manufacturing performance in Q1 2020, placing us firmly in a recession and contributing to the economy contracting by 2% on a quarter on quarter basis. The Reuters consensus forecast for Q2 GDP is an economic contraction of more than 40% quarter on quarter annualized. In the midst of such economic disaster, where demand undoubtedly collapsed, we were still faced with stage 2 load-shedding and power outages.
Nedbank Chief Economist, Nicky Weimar, and Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter, discuss load-shedding, the road ahead for Eskom and what this means for South Africa.