Eskom has done it again. The national power utility announced on Monday that it has recorded a second successive year of profitability, posting a group profit after tax of R30.3 billion for the financial year ended 31 March 2026 — more than double the previous year’s restated R14 billion.
The results, announced in Eskom’s annual results for the 2026 financial year, confirm that the utility’s turnaround strategy is delivering on both fronts: the lights are staying on, and the books are healing.
A balance sheet on the mend
The numbers tell a story of steady recovery. Eskom’s EBITDA margin grew to 30.63%, up from a restated 28.75% the year before, alongside what the utility describes as a healthier balance sheet and materially improved liquidity.
Group Chief Financial Officer Calib Cassim highlighted a milestone many thought was years away: positive credit-rating actions from S&P Global, Fitch and Moody’s, including Eskom’s first credit-rating upgrade in over a decade.
“We received our first credit-rating upgrade in over a decade, which will enhance Eskom’s access to lower borrowing costs to support future capex, which also contributed to South Africa’s own sovereign upgrade,” Cassim said.
He credited government’s debt relief support with freeing up cash from operations to be reinvested in the business, notably the generation recovery plan, “the benefits of which the country is experiencing today”.
The lights stayed on — and the economy felt it
The financial turnaround has marched in step with an operational one. More than a year has passed without load shedding, with just four days totalling 26 hours recorded in the entire 2026 financial year.
Group Chief Executive Dan Marokane put the recovery in perspective: the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research estimated that load shedding cost the economy up to R2.8 trillion in 2023. By 2024 that impact had plunged 83% to R481 billion — and in the latest financial year it was minimal.
“We are moving from recovery to transformation, shifting our focus from stabilising the business to building a financially sustainable, competitive and future-ready Eskom,” Marokane said, adding that profits are being reinvested in maintaining and expanding critical infrastructure and in the technologies driving the utility’s decarbonisation journey.
Powering growth, sustainably
Board chairperson Mteto Nyati said profit and public purpose go hand in hand. “Eskom’s purpose is to power growth sustainably. Profit is not the opposite of that public purpose. It is what makes the purpose possible,” he said, pointing to reinvestment in Eskom Green, a better customer experience in distribution, the reliability of the coal fleet and grid expansion so new generation can connect.
Eskom says the gains also support its aspiration to keep electricity price increases in single digits — good news for households and businesses alike as South Africa’s energy recovery gathers pace.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
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