MPs on Parliament’s standing and select committees on appropriations on Tuesday insisted on regular updates on how Eskom would spend the close to R50 billion that would reflect as equity on its balance sheet in the next year, thanks to interventions from National Treasury.

The MPs were briefed by officials from the treasury on two appropriation bills before Parliament that, once passed, would see a R23-billion rand equity injection in Eskom in three tranches, as well as the conversion of government’s R60-billion loan to Eskom into equity.

The R23-billion, to be raised through the sale of non-core assets, would be transferred to Eskom in three tranches – in June, December and during the 2016/17 financial year. The conversion of the loan into equity was also expected to happen soon.

“The loan agreement currently in place will lapse when Eskom offers the state shares of R60-billion,” said Treasury chief director for legislation Empie van Schoor. The “cheap loan” would reflect as R24.4-billion on Eskom’s balance sheet once Eskom offers the shares.

This was a sticking point for opposition party MPs who questioned the wisdom of not privatising Eskom and selling shares to the public.

“Eskom is already a state owned enterprise, so now government’s going to have shares in its own enterprise. It already owns the whole thing in effect. Now we are giving it shares to wipe out the loan. Does this sound like a good idea? I don’t think so,” said Democratic Alliance MP Alan McLoughlin.

“Why aren’t shares being offered on the stock exchange for instance?” he asked. “Why can’t members of the public buy into Eskom and get a piece of the action if they feel it’s worth having?”

ANC MP Sheila Shope-Sithole disagreed and said that for South Africa, as a developmental State, constant State intervention was needed to prevent Eskom from collapsing. But, she said conditions needed to be attached to interventions.

“From our side…we would like to see that that [money] given to Eskom is followed by accountability, that we are able to put our fingers on the movement of funds,” she said.

Shope-Sithole added, “We would like to know on an ongoing basis how the improvement of the balance sheet of Eskom has actually been converted into better service delivery.”

National Treasury officials said the government’s war room, led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa who was overseeing the interventions at Eskom, had the job of ensuring the money was tracked and used for the purposes of solving the energy crisis.

Opposition party MPs said they would reluctantly support the two bills, but warned that constantly throwing money at Eskom was not the solution to solving the current situation.

“At what point in time does National Treasury begin to apply common business principles when you would recommend to the Parliament that Eskom should be privatised and listed as a company on the JSE; and everybody can have a piece of the cake? It’s such a great business to invest in, “said DA MP Farhat Essack.

“For how long does the state continue to put good money [into Eskom], an investment that turns out to be a ridiculous liability, so at some point in time National Treasury must be able to pull up the handbrake and say, listen we’ve got to apply common business principles here and draw the line somewhere?” Essack asked.