No quick fix for Eskom
ESKOM does not know when load shedding will end as threats of labour unrest at the embattled power utility continue, says Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
He said there would be no quick fixes for the power crisis.
“We don’t have a magic wand that can enable us to… say load shedding is over. It’s going to be a huge struggle to actually overcome this crisis.”
He asked why, if Eskom had installed 48000 megawatts in the country, there were only 28000MW available a day.
“Where does that 20 000 megawatts of power actually disappear to? We are eager and determined to get to the bottom of what the problems are so that Eskom can communicate with South Africans and answer the question of how long will load shedding take,” he said.
Gordhan said Eskom still needed to complete its investigation and would come back in the next 10 to 14 days and frankly tell the country where it stood on the challenges facing it.
He said Eskom was sending 12 to 14 engineers to visit power stations to give the utility an independent view of what was going wrong and how quickly it could be repaired.
Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza said: “We need time to work with the equipment, speed to address the problems, to get the equipment, spares (and) the people that we need to get, we need money to pay for things that we need.”
He said during the industrial action last year, roads were shut down, coal and oil could not come into power stations and ash was not being removed which clogged the system.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers said it would continue with its planned march to ANC headquarters in Johannesburg next Saturday to protest against Eskom’s contracts with independent power producers.
It wanted the government to explain what unbundling would mean in terms of job security. This was after a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, Energy Minister Jeff Radebe and Gordhan on Monday.