THE South African government has announced its intention to sell about 30% of state owned Eskom’s 24 power stations, in a move that will cut debt and open the market to competition, the Bloomberg news service reported. Sivi Gounden, director general of the department of public enterprises, said the assets would be offered to multinational energy players. The National Electricity Regulator (NER) has already received licence applications from independent power producers to build new power stations once Eskom’s monopoly ends. The NER reported recently that South Africa’s 14 licensed electricity generators, which operate some 53 power stations, earned R14,688bn in revenue, while incurring costs of R13,177bn.