AFP reported that the High Court in Johannesburg is expected to rule within days if the pricing arrangement between Eskom and mining company BHP Billiton's aluminum smelters should be made public.

Billiton's Hillside smelter near Richards Bay and its Mozal smelter near Maputo use about 6% of the country's total generated electricity. The two parties entered into contracts in the 1990s for Billiton to get cheaper electricity.

According to Eskom's 2009 financial statements, the utility lost about ZAR 8.3 billion for the remainder of the contracts, although this figure was adjusted to ZAR 4.7 billion in 2010 mainly due to the renegotiation of the Mozal contract.

Using the Promotion of Access to Information Act a Sake24 journalist has asked the court to force Eskom to reveal how it calculated Billiton's electricity tariffs as well as the duration of and signatories to the contracts.

Billiton argued that it would suffer enormous damage if its competitors knew these details and has tried unsuccessfully to have the case rejected.

(Sourced from AFP)