Eskom
State-owned company Eskom has a long history of corruption, mismanagement and coal dependency, while South Africans pay the price. Eskom is supposed to supply 80% of South Africa’s electricity. After severe load shedding between 2023 and 2025, Eskom achieved a turnaround: there has been no national load shedding since May 2025. Yet this recovery has largely been achieved by improving the performance of its ageing coal fleet, instead of replacing it. In FY 2025, the company still generates 94% of its electricity from coal.
Corruption however, remains a major unresolved issue. In 2023, then-CEO André de Ruyter claimed Eskom was losing an estimated $55 million a month to corruption. In February 2023, news broke of four criminal cartels operating inside Eskom. Corruption ranges from coal truck scams which swap high-quality coal for rubble, to grossly inflated costs such as paying $4,422 for knee pads which should cost $17. In February 2025, a Special Investigating Unit report exposed systemic manipulation of procurement processes by frontline workers and senior managers. Around 1 billion Rand (around €54 million) was stolen through contract splitting to bypass oversight. Investigations into procurement fraud at Eskom power stations continued in 2026.
Alongside corruption, coal is deeply entrenched in Eskom’s DNA. Not only Eskom’s dependence on coal is worrying, but also the fact that most of its coal-fired power stations are more than 40 years old. Bringing the fleet into full compliance with South Africa’s Minimum Emission Standards would cost an estimated R257 billion (around €14 billion). Therefore, instead of adhering to the Emission Standards, Eskom has repeatedly dodged environmental obligations and was granted an initial exemption from air quality standards until 2025, followed by a further exemption for 5-10 years.
The consequences are particular severe for communities in South Africa’s coal belt. A 2026 assessment by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Greenpeace Africa and Groundwork estimate that delaying the retirement of coal-fired power plants will result in 32,000 additional premature death between 2026 and 2050, as well as 41,000 additional preterm births and 17,000 new cases of childhood asthma.
While Eskom has committed to a Just Energy Transition, coal will remain central for years to come. In 2026 Eskom launched the subsidiary Eskom Green, which plans around 6 GW of renewable and storage projects at former coal sites by 2030, including a 75 MW solar plant at Lethabo that began construction in 2026. These are tiny steps towards diversification, but remain small compared with Eskom’s 45 GW coal fleet.
