South Africa faces no choice but to assume some of the debt of its troubled power utility, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., said Martin Kingston, the chief executive officer of Rothschild & Co.’s operations in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The state-owned company has incurred debt of 419 billion rand ($29 billion), which it is struggling to service, and inadequate spending on maintenance of its power plants has led to a series of scheduled power cuts this month, potentially harming economic growth.

South Africa’s financial regulator is investigating seven trading accounts that sold Steinhoff International Holdings NV shares in the weeks leading up to the global retailer’s disclosure of accounting irregularities and subsequent share-price collapse a year ago, Bloomberg News reported. The accounts belong to individuals, trusts and corporate entities and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority is looking for evidence of insider trading, it said in a statement Friday. The probe is close to completion.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. should consider selling two coal-fired plants that rank among the world’s biggest to repair the state-owned utility’s finances, according to the head of South Africa’s biggest bank by market value, Bloomberg News reported. The supplier of almost all of South Africa’s power is being battered by declining sales, high fixed costs, surging debt and unplanned outages that are holding back economic growth. Its two new power plants, Medupi and Kusile, are still unfinished after a decade of construction.

Troubled low-cost African carrier Fastjet Plc warned on Friday it may have to go into administration, shut shop or sell itself as it had only enough cash to keep it in business for another seven days, Reuters reported. The airline, which had a cash balance of $6.8 million as of Thursday, said it might have to formally hire insolvency advisers for the process if its cash balance does not improve.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV tumbled after the global retailer said the results of a forensic investigation by auditors PwC will be delayed, Bloomberg News reported. The news comes exactly a year after the disclosure of accounting irregularities and the resignation of its CEO threw the company into crisis. The findings of the probe were postponed until the end of February, while the release of earnings for both last year and fiscal 2018 were pushed out to mid-April, the company said Thursday, dashing its efforts to publish audited results for 2017 by the end of this year.

South Africa’s government is prioritizing regaining an investment grade rating on its debt as part of its plans to revive a stagnant economy, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said. Moody’s Investors Service is the only one of the three major credit-rating companies that still assesses South Africa’s debt at investment grade, Bloomberg News reported. S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings Ltd. cut their ratings to junk during former President Jacob Zuma’s tenure which was characterized by political uncertainty due to multiple cabinet reshuffles and corruption scandals.

South African Airways’s suppliers are slashing payment periods to reduce the risk of losing out from a collapse of the troubled state carrier, which is struggling to pay lenders 5 billion rand ($361 million) due by the end of this month, Bloomberg News reported. Companies with contracts with SAA are cutting settlement terms to seven days from 21 days as the creditor deadline looms, interim Chief Financial Officer Deon Fredericks said in an interview in Cape Town. The National Treasury is working to facilitate the payment, with the process “well under way,” he said.

Steinhoff International said on Thursday its Mattress Firm Inc unit, the largest U.S. mattress retailer, emerged out of bankruptcy with access to $525 million in exit financing, within two months of filing for Chapter 11 protection, Reuters reported. Mattress Firm also closed about 660 underperforming stores, said Steinhoff, which has been working on a deal to restructure the debt of some units after revealing multi-billion-euro holes in its balance sheet. The store closures still leave the Houston-based company with about 2,600 stores across the United States.

South African Airways is looking at ways to roll over 9.2 billion rand ($640 million) of debt by March as the loss-making state-owned carrier works to make more routes profitable, Chief Executive Officer Vuyani Jarana said. The airline has emerged as a major headache for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government as it battles to ease the burden of state-owned companies on public finances, Bloomberg News reported.

South Africa’s finance minister said the nation’s troubled flag-carrier should be shut down, casting doubt on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s stated goal of saving what was once Africa’s biggest airline, the Financial Times reported. South African Airways “is lossmaking, it’s unlikely to sort out the situation, in my view we should close it down”, said Tito Mboweni, an outspoken former central bank governor, at an event with investors in New York on Thursday.