Eskom’s emergency plans to stave off crippling power shortages with massive investments funded by R150bn ($19.3bn) borrowings suffered a serious blow when its credit rating was downgraded.

The decision by Moody’s, the credit rating agency, to lower its opinion of the South African electricity utility’s creditworthiness prompted the government to offer a full guarantee to all the state-owned company’s capital market creditors, in addition to the R60bn loan it has pledged to the utility.