South Africa's Ramaphosa says Eskom cannot be allowed to fail

CAPE TOWN: South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa used his state of the nation address on Thursday to pledge to speed up 230 billion rand ($16.11 billion) of support for ailing power utility Eskom, which he said was too vital to the economy to be allowed to fail.

Ramaphosa said Eskom's financial position remains a matter of grave concern.

"We will therefore table a special appropriation bill on an urgent basis to allocate a significant portion of the 230 billion rand fiscal support that Eskom will require over the next 10 years in the early years," he said.