Eskom crisis not manageable, says Cosatu
SA’s largest labour federation, Cosatu, says it does not believe the rolling electricity blackouts that have hit the country are manageable, calling the situation a crisis.
On Monday, Eskom announced it had moved to stage 6 load-shedding, cutting 6,000MW from the grid as it grappled with a technical fault at its new Medupi power station, a plant that has run over costs and timelines. It was the first time Eskom, which is a financial black hole and has R450bn of debt, has removed so much power from the grid.
Wet coal and technical problems at other coal-burning plants have contributed to the electricity crisis.
But public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan told the nation on television that the situation at the power utility is a “manageable crisis”.
Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the SA Communist Party’s (SACP) special national congress that the problems at the utility are huge. Cosatu and the SACP are key allies of the ANC.
“We don’t think it is manageable. It [comes] at a very, very high cost,” Ntshalintshali said. He said the continuation of loadshedding was unaffordable. “We are at stage 6. What will come next?” he asked.
Eskom has already communicated to the public that it could go up to stage 8, which will see customers having electricity for half a day.
Ntshalintshali said the manner in which the government has dealt with the crisis is “totally unsatisfactory” as there is no sense of when load-shedding will end and what plans and turnaround strategies are there.
“Regrettably we had a planned meeting on Monday when we wanted the government, the ministers in fact, to come to Nedlac and share with us the problems and what kind of strategy we need to develop going forward. But the minister [Gordhan] was not there. The only person who came was the acting director-general,” he said.
The acting director-general at the department of public enterprises, Kgathatso Tlhakudi, gave a “very vague explanation with no clue as to what was going on”.
Promises have been made in the past that load-shedding had ended, Ntshalintshali said.
“We need the full detail so that we can be confident that government, the minister ... are working to fix Eskom,” he said.
Gordhan’s spokesperson, Sam Mkokeli, said the minister is working flat out to minimise the effect of the load-shedding, “which he considers very serious. He delegated the responsibility to the acting [directorgeneral], a consummate professional who is up to speed with the work of the department. It’ sa great pity that Cosatu missed the personal presence of the minister because of the load-shedding and other political events.”
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande told the congress decisions should have been taken in the late 1990s and early 2000s regarding maintenance and the provision of extra capacity at Eskom. “But this was not done because there was an intention to privatise.”