The new board of South Africa's State-owned power utility Eskom will be announced on Friday, an official from the department of public enterprises said on Thursday.

The names were discussed in Wednesday's cabinet meeting, but Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown's spokesperson Colin Cruywagen said an announcement would be made "by end of business" on Friday.

The embattled power utility, which is at the centre of a state capture probe, by a parliamentary committee has come under intense public scrutiny over the past few months over executives and board members allegedly favouring the Gupta family when dishing out multi million rand contracts.

The new board was expected to be in place by November 30, but due to the Cabinet meeting being postponed to this week, Brown could not make an announcement.

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba during his medium-term budget policy statement in October warned the heavily indebted Eskom that defaulting on its loans was the single biggest risk to the South African economy.