The president and the finance minister's 'capitulation to the left in the ANC' has been cited as one factor responsible for the shocking shortfall.

Next week electricity supplier Eskom will report a financial loss so high that no single public or private company has ever reported its equal in South Africa. The R25-billion net loss is almost double the previous record, held by another state-owned company, PetroSA, which reported a R15-billion loss in 2015, after spending billions drilling new wells for gas it did not find.

Eskom's record loss is attributable to the power of trade unions, who won a wage increase almost double the inflation rate, together with a once-off bonus for their members last year, said two people close to the utility. But the loss is also attributable to higher maintenance expenditure as Eskom was forced to push up its expenditure on the diesel-guzzling open-cycle gas turbine stations in order to avoid load shedding, said one.

The accelerated maintenance expenditure came after the shock Stage Four load shedding in November 2018, during which Eskom was forced to ration electricity in the traditionally low-demand summer period due to massive breakdowns of power stations.

After a month of sustained load...