Parliament, Cape Town - Government’s sale of non-core strategic assets to fund Eskom should be left in the hands of Treasury and the Department of Public Enterprises, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday.
Answering questions in the National Council of Provinces, Ramaphosa refused to be drawn on the specifics of plans to sell off the assets in a bid to pump R23 billion into the cash-strapped electricity utility.
“Treasury and the Department of Public Enterprises are dealing with that matter and it is entirely in their hands,” said Ramaphosa.
“They are in the process of dealing with that and I will not pre-empt what they are doing by giving an answer right now or even give you a suggestion of what they are doing. Once they have concluded that they will go public and everything will be done as transparently as possible.”
In February, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene confirmed that Eskom would receive a cash injection of R23b in two tranches - R10b in June and R13b by year-end.
Despite speculation that government would be selling off its 13.9 percent stake in mobile company, Vodacom, Nene would not confirm it at the time, citing fears it would affect the price of assets.
African News Agency