Eskom has spent billions burning diesel to keep the lights on

Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said Eskom has spent billions on diesel. File Picture: Kopano Tlape/GCIS

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Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has disclosed that Eskom has spent billions burning diesel in the past five years.

Eskom has spent R64.7 billion between the 2019/2020 and 2023/24 financial year, with more money spent in the last two financial periods.

Gordhan said during the 2019/2020 period Eskom spent R5.8bn and the following financial year it spent R5.76bn.

But load shedding continued to impact on the supply of electricity and this led to more expenditure on diesel.

In the 2021/2022 financial year, the power utility spent R8.60bn burning diesel. But in the following financial year, the expenditure more than doubled after Eskom allocated R21.25bn for diesel.