Eskom apologises over rolling blackouts

After two days of rolling blackouts, the government moved into damage-control mode on Thursday and apologised to SA for hardships caused by power cuts.

After two days of rolling blackouts, the government moved into damage-control mode on Thursday and apologised to the country for hardships caused by power cuts.

Eskom chair and acting CEO Jabu Mabuza apologised to SA for the blackouts at a media briefing in Kempton Park.

Deputy President David Mabuza used a question-and-answer session in parliament to say sorry to the country.

Stage two load-shedding started on Wednesday morning.

Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said system constraints resulted from many unplanned outages and other issues which took 10,500MW, or more than 20% in generation capacity, out of the system. Notably, six units are down due to boiler tube leaks, while a broken conveyor belt feeding coal to Medupi caused the loss of 1,500MW.

Mabuza said the power cuts were not what he would have wanted near the end of his term as acting group CEO.

“I want to take this time to unreservedly apologise to South Africans‚” he said‚ acknowledging that power consumers were given minimal warning about the outages.

The Eskom chair said the decision to implement loadshedding “was not one that we took lightly”. He said that Eskom was disappointed when it was left with no option but to cut off the power supply after experiencing a high level of consumption at the weekend. This was accompanied by a high number of breakdowns.

“The decision to implement load-shedding was taken as last resort. It was one we needed to take to balance supply and demand.… We understand the impact that comes with loadshedding on consumers and the economy‚” he said.

The second day of scheduled power rationing came ahead of a key ratings agency decision on the country’s investment grade.

The embattled state-owned utility has long struggled to produce power with ageing infrastructure and after decades of mismanagement.

Businesses and some school examinations were hit by power interruptions on Thursday due to the load-shedding, which is being implemented from 9.00am to 11.00pm over the next week.

“I think we must on behalf of the government apologise to all businesses, students that could not write [exams[,” the deputy president told parliament in Cape Town.

“We want to assure South Africans that this problem will be attended to and we will come back to normality.”

Following rolling blackouts in February and March, creditratings agencies raised concern about the sustainability of the country’s state-owned enterprises, rising government debt and low economic growth.

There were some signs recently that the country’s economy was rebounding, notching up 3.1% growth in the second quarter of 2019.