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JOHANNESBURG, Jan 22 (Reuters) - South Africa plans toinject $870 million into cash-strapped state utility Eskom asearly as around June, a finance ministry spokesman said onThursday, as part of its strategy to raise funds for the powercompany.
Pretoria said in October it would sell "non-essentialassets" to raise 20 billion rand ($1.7 billion) of funding forEskom, which urgently needs about 250 billion rand to upgradeits ageing infrastructure.
"National Treasury has already identified a viable strategyto raise the required amount of funding that could be executed,"Treasury spokesman Jabulani Sikhakhane said, confirming aBloomberg report based on an interview with Finance MinisterNhlanhla Nene in Davos.
"Due to the commercial sensitivities involved, we cannotprovide details. However, the process is proceeding to plan,"Sikhakhane added.
Nene told Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum thegovernment had identified assets to sell and the first cashinjection of 10 billion rand ($870 million) was expected byabout June.
The Treasury has said it will give details on the sales inthe national budget review in February. Sources told Reuters inDecember the government was considering relinquishing shares offirms such as mobile operator Vodacom and fixed-lineprovider Telkom.
Eskom said last week it expected the power grid to remainconstrained for the next two to three years, raising thelikelihood of more rolling blackouts in Africa's most developed,but ailing economy.($1 = 11.4919 rand) (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; editing by David Dolan)
