Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has urged management at State-owned electricity utility Eskom to take decisive steps to halt the decline in profitability, which she revealed on Thursday had slumped from R7.1-billion in 2013/14 to R3.6-billion in 2014/15.

Brown released a short statement following the group’s annual general meeting, which took place in Cape Town on August 6, with the utility to officially release its annual results on August 11.

“Similar to other State-owned companies, Eskom must finalise steps to wean the organisation from the support of the fiscus. Eskom must be put on a course where it can live off its balance sheet,” Brown said.

In July, the South African government sold its 13.91% stake in telecoms group Vodacom to finance a capital injection into Eskom.

The transaction followed the passing by Parliament of the Eskom Special Appropriation Bill to enable the R23-billion appropriation first announced by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in 2014. The Eskom Subordinated Loan Special Appropriation Amendment Bill was also approved for the conversion of a R60-billion subordinated loan into equity.

The latest injection, which was being transferred to Eskom in phases, was additional to guarantees of R350-billion previously extended to Eskom by the National Treasury.

Brown also called on Eskom to improve the availability of its power stations to 80%, while reiterating that load-shedding would remain a threat for the coming 18 months.

“Although the accelerated maintenance has increased plant capacity from 65% to 75%, I am urging Eskom to continue on this trend and increase this threshold to reach at least 80%,” Brown said.

The call was in line with one of the five points outlined by the electricity war room for the stabilisation and recovery of Eskom, with the deterioration in the energy availability factor (EAF) from the coal-fired fleet viewed as largely to blame for the utility’s inability to match supply with demand. Eskom’s EAF had slipped precipitously from around 90% in 2001.

Statistics South Africa reported, meanwhile, that electricity generation decreased by 1.7% year-on-year in June 2015, while electricity consumption decreased by 1.3% year-on-year in June 2015.

But Brown indicated she was confident Eskom was "turning the corner".

"I have instructed the board to fill all senior management positions to ensure this consolidation continues. It’s unacceptable that senior and middle-management positions are staying vacant for too long,” Brown said.

She made no reference in the statement, however, to the fact that Eskom still had an acting chairperson in the form of Dr Ben Ngubane, who took on the role after former chairperson Zola Tsotsi resigned on March 31.

Similarly, no reference was made to the findings of a Dentons-led inquiry, which was instituted by the board after Brown insisted that the board act to address, among other issues, the poor performance of the power stations.

Following a board meeting on March 11, CEO Tshediso Matona, FD Tsholofelo Molefe, group capital executive Dan Marokane and acting group executive for commercial and technology Matshela Koko were suspended to enable an "unfettered" investigation. Matona, Molefe and Marokane had since left the organisation.

In April Brown announced that Transnet's Brian Molefe had been seconded as acting Eskom CEO and his contract was extended by a further three months in July. From August 1, Transnet CFO Anoj Singh joined Eskom as acting CFO.