South Africa’s state-owned electricity company is groaning under more than $30 billion of debt, and doesn’t generate enough cash to service it, Bloomberg News reported. Investors can’t get enough of it. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s 2028 dollar securities have handed bondholders a whopping 22.3% return this year, more than the debt of any other emerging-market utility and almost three times the average for developing-nation hard-currency bonds, according to Bloomberg Barclays indexes.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV is seeking another extension to restructure almost $12 billion of debt as the retailer strives to keep shop doors open and increase the value of some of its assets, Bloomberg News reported. The South African retailer will probably miss a June 30 deadline for agreeing a debt deal, the owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S. said in its 2018 annual report published late Tuesday. Steinhoff needs time to prepare some divisions for an eventual sale that will enable it to repay creditors, the company said.

South Africa’s Competition Tribunal ordered antitrust investigators to clarify charges of currency manipulation against more than 20 banks, drawing out a four-year legal battle, Reuters reported. The Tribunal, which oversees antitrust cases, found deficiencies in referrals prepared by the Competition Commission and gave the body 40 days to redraft its accusations, according to a statement on Wednesday. However, it also rejected attempts by banks to dismiss the case.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. should quit coal-fired generation over the next 20 years, Greenpeace Africa said, even as the beleaguered South African power utility presses ahead with new plants, Bloomberg News reported. Such a shift would require a massive overhaul at Eskom since coal-fed power is the backbone of its fleet, with two new stations currently under construction. But the debt-strapped utility, which supplies more than 90% of South Africa’s electricity, is under fire from environmental groups who claim it’s far from ready for the global transition to cleaner fuels.

Cyril Ramaphosa’s uphill battle to revive Africa’s most industrialised economy has grown steeper after his ruling African National Congress spooked markets with an attack on the independence of the central bank, the Financial Times reported. South Africa’s economy is already skirting with recession and threats to growth are festering problems for the president after the ANC returned to power in elections in May.

The fingerprints of South Africa’s power utility are all over the economy’s demise. But fixing Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is giving President Cyril Ramaphosa a chance to switch course on issues from climate change to growth, Bloomberg News reported. “It’s really important to link Eskom’s restructuring to where we want to be as a country,” said Roger Jardine, the chairman of FirstRand Ltd., Africa’s largest bank by market value.

South Africa’s economy has suffered its most severe quarterly slump in a decade, ratcheting up the pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to revive the continent’s most industrialised country, the Financial Times reported. Severe power shortages caused by the crisis at Eskom, the struggling state power utility, dragged economic output 3.2 per cent lower in the first quarter on an annualised basis, according to Treasury data released on Tuesday. The bigger-than-expected drop was the largest quarterly fall since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009.

The labor union whose members contribute most to the funds overseen by South Africa’s state pension manager wants the institution to stop investing in the debt of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., potentially increasing funding pressure on the heavily indebted utility, Bloomberg News reported. The 240,000-strong Public Servants Association said by buying Eskom’s bonds the Public Investment Corp. is exposing pensioners to excessive risk as the state-owned power company is not selling enough electricity to cover its costs and has had to be bailed out by the government.

Sluggish economic growth in South Africa is starting to increase risks arising from high levels of debt in the country, the central bank warned on Wednesday, with defaults growing in both consumer and corporate debts, Reuters reported. In its semi-annual review of financial stability, the South African Reserve Bank said some areas of lending, including unsecured lending, car finance and lending to sectors like construction and manufacturing, were showing particular strain.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s 96-year history is replete with former chief executive officers who rose from within South Africa’s debt-laden state utility to run the company, Bloomberg News reported. There are few obvious choices for the next CEO to come from those same ranks. Two possible candidates from Eskom’s executive team to replace Phakamani Hadebe have strengths but also weaknesses. Chief Financial Officer Calib Cassim is a chartered accountant who’s worked at Eskom for 17 years, yet he has little technical expertise.