Ramaphosa insists Eskom is stabilising

DEPUTY President Cyril Ramaphosa believes Eskom has turned the corner and yesterday told Parliament that the state-owned power utility had stabilised.

Ramaphosa said during question time in the National Assembly Eskom had overcome some of its hurdles and that the company would continue to stabilise.

He said the fact that there had been no load shedding for almost 30 days was indicative of improvements at Eskom, adding that the country had been facing serious challenges in the past few months, which impacted on economic growth.

One of the key challenges was an energy constraint, but that was now being addressed by the relevant authorities including the government and the power utility.

Ramaphosa reiterated the government’s projection of 5 percent economic growth by 2020. He said this target was achievable despite external and internal challenges including energy constraint, low levels of fixed investments and a plunge in commodity prices.

“We are determined to address these challenges so that we can accelerate economic growth to achieve the levels envisaged in the National Development Plan (NDP),” the deputy president said.

President Jacob Zuma’s nine-point plan is meant to address these challenges, he said, noting that South Africa was not the only country facing economic woes.

However, he maintained that the government would achieve the 5 percent economic growth by 2020, as set out by government. When Zuma came into office he said the government would reach 5 percent economic growth by the end of his term, and Ramaphosa said yesterday that this would be achieved by the target date.

He also said the government had no intention to drop the NDP in favour of another policy, adding that this was an overarching policy adopted by all parties in Parliament, and it would continue to be the policy of the government.

He said the NDP was embedded in the Freedom Charter.

This was in response to questions from ANC MP Bheki Hadebe and EFF member Floyd Shivambu on whether there was an intention to dump the NDP in exchange for another policy.

Ramaphosa also denied there were divisions in government on the NDP.

This followed DA MP David Maynier’s suggestion that Deputy Minister of Public Works Jeremy Cronin has described the NDP as a vision and not a blueprint of government.

Ramaphosa said all government departments were implementing the NDP.

There was no doubt that the ANC government was committed to implementing the NDP, he added.