S.African National Treasury hopes for swift approval of bill to speed up funds to Eskom

The South African National Treasury hopes parliament will approve a bill to speed up funds to struggling state power utility Eskom before the end of August, a department official said on Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his state of the nation address that the government would ask parliament to approve a special appropriation bill allocating a "significant portion" of the 230 billion rand ($16.08 billion) in fiscal support that Eskom will need over the next decade in the early years.

"It will be a substantial amount," National Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane told Reuters. "We hope to finalise this before the end of August."