Govt Explains The ZESA-ESKOM US$10 Million Saga
The government yesterday confirmed paying US$10 million to South African power utility, Eskom, to service the debt to the power utility.
Earlier reports had suggested that the government had paid another USD10 million to South African power utility, ESKOM. The reports were however refuted by ESKOM which confessed no knowledge of the payment.
Energy minister, advocate Fortune Chasi then said that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Finance were the parties with powers and means to pay to ESKOM.
Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development, Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, yesterday revealed that the purported US$10 million had not been paid to Eskom. He said:
We owe Eskom, US$33 million and US$37 million to our colleagues in Mozambique. We will continue to service these debts.
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By end of today (yesterday) we should be able to settle US$10 million. We also paid RTGS$20 million, which was domestic, to Zesa and they did acknowledge payment.
An issue becomes an RTGS equivalent to these US dollars required to pay the debts. Often the company in question (Zesa) has liquidity challenges and this makes it not so easy to honour these US dollar payments abroad even when we have access to US dollars.
We are doing everything we can to make sure we extinguish our debts and power continues to flow.
Finance and Economic Development secretary, Mr George Guvamatanga confirmed the payment arrangements to Eskom adding that sometimes the process took longer to be fully processed.
More: The Herald
