Scramble to keep the lights on

Fears Eskom won’t survive beyond April

THE Cape Chamber of Commerce says it has been flooded with hundreds of calls from business because of the Eskom load shedding.

With the debilitating power outages entering the fifth day, Chamber president Janine Myburgh said it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“This is very bad timing and very bad for our economy. We have received hundreds of complaints from businesses so far,” she said.

Myburgh added that Eskom’s troubles could scare off investors. “That’s the most important issue. “Investors look for the basics to be in place before they even consider investing their money.

“That means things like safety, water security, and an uninterrupted power supply are of crucial importance.

“We can’t offer them the latter at the moment,” she said.

Meanwhile, there was a mad scramble behind the scenes to keep the lights on, with President Cyril Ramaphosa saying he will make an announcement during his reply in the debate on his State of the Nation address.

Yesterday it emerged in the parliamentary public enterprise portfolio committee that Eskom was technically insolvent and, at the current trajectory, would not survive beyond April.

Acting director-general of the Public Enterprises Department Thuto Shomang told MPs Eskom’s R420 billion debt represented 15% of the sovereign debt and if the utility defaulted on its debt, it would threaten the country’s economy.

Shomang also said the construction of the Medupi and Kusile power stations had suffered massive delays and cost overruns due to poor planning, poor engineering designs, poor procurement practices or poor contracting and corruption.

Ramaphosa pleaded with South Africans not to panic as rolling power cuts across the country persisted for a fourth day.

“Let’s not panic. In some ways we’ve been here before and we came out on the other side… and we will find solutions, and the solutions are actually emerging and we will actually be okay,” Ramaphosa said.

He acknowledged the power cuts were having a “devastating impact on our economy and on the ordinary lives of people”.

This week ANC acting national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the breakdown in Eskom plans was an attempt to sabotage Ramaphosa’s new vision for the country. The DA has called for the Hawks to investigate these claims.

Said the opposition party’s Public Enterprises spokesperson Natasha Mazzone: “Such claims are serious in nature and the DA will call upon the Hawks to investigate any potential acts of sabotage against Eskom.

“The planned disruption or interference with Eskom’s ability to deliver services to South Africans is tantamount to treason, and if proven guilty, any parties involved must be tried and criminally charged.”

Parliament has approved the DA’s request for a special debate on Eskom next week.

All eyes were also on the National Energy Regulator of SA as to whether the latest upheaval would influence their decision to approve Eskom’s request for a tariff hike.

“We will be making an announcement in the first week of March. At the moment we are still busy doing further assessments on the applications. That’s all that we can say at this stage,” said Nersa spokesperson Charles Hlebela.