Eskom’s COO, Jan Oberholzer is wrong about the utility’s inability to afford regular maintenance on key infrastructure.

This is the charge from Eskom’s former interim CEO, Motshela Koko.

He says that by the end of this year, Eskom would have spent R 13 billion on maintenance alone.

Koko was speaking as the power utility has been under pressure to ensure that the lights remain on after days of load shedding.

His comments come as government has claimed that it would not be dishing out more funds to assist the ailing utility.

But economist, Dominic Brown insists that the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement has proven that the country is more focused on ensuring that the corporates’ interests are protected through the support of State-Owned Entities like Eskom.

Meanwhile, the high number of municipalities in financial distress, is another indicator of this skewed budgetary allocations of the State.

And Brown says that the situation will get worse.

He says that municipalities are heavily reliant on resources from local government, and when these are squandered, it’s the poor that suffer.

[Header image: The Sowetan LIVE]