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The DA has written to the Eskom acting CEO, Calib Cassim, requesting that he uses his executive authority as Eskom’s chief accounting officer to cancel a tender in which they are asking suppliers to provide services for the design of a new logo and the development of a new corporate identity for Eskom and its subsidiaries.

Eskom has been bankrupt for a while now and has been kept afloat by taxpayer funded bailouts, the most recent of which was the R254 billion Eskom debt takeover by the government – which will worsen the country’s already precarious debt burden. It is therefore simply astounding that Eskom sees a logo change as a priority when they are literally surviving on taxpayer money.

For an entity that has become chronically unable to provide a reliable supply of electricity and has an insurmountable debt burden, the push for a new logo is outrageous and not justifiable by any rational measure. Consumers are struggling to pay their electricity bills after Eskom imposed a 31,4% tariff increase over two years, yet Eskom sees it prudent to use their money for a new corporate logo.

All of Eskom’s spending should be directed towards finding new generation capacity to end loadshedding. Stakeholders across the board share the view that, the 16 year old loadshedding crisis has been devastating for the economy wiping off billions of rand in potential revenue. One would assume that after crippling the economy, Eskom would be circumspect in their spending habits but it turns out that frivolous spending it still part of the Eskom culture.

With estimates pointing out a new logo and branding exercise for Eskom and its subsidiaries will run into millions of rand, the DA made it clear to Cassim that the tender must be cancelled as a matter of urgency. South Africans don’t care about the logo that Eskom uses, all they want is a reliable supply of electricity.

Issued by Ghaleb Cachalia MP - DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises