Committee needed to probe Eskom saga

WHAT went wrong with the entity called Eskom?

Is it something that we can be proud of in this new dispensation? One can see that it is a significant risk to our economic growth objectives. What happened?

At first, former president Thabo Mbeki acknowledged that the government ignored calls for investment in new power stations. Noting the above, we have seen the building of two power stations: Medupi and Kusile.

Investing in these power stations, we expected an improved or stable power grid. But what was the new reality? We have seen increased operational costs.

Are these power stations not supposed to be helping us with the grid problem? What of the operational costs because of this continued load shedding? Imagine each time there is load shedding we are spending R3 billion on diesel,and assuming that it happens two times a month for the next two years the figure is R144bn – and at the end, we have nothing to show for it.

It is high time that the president got a committee to look into the Eskom conundrum. The expertise of highly rated medical specialists was involved in assisting the government with their response to Covid-19, and I don’t think this grid problem can be treated differently. We need immediate action if we are to seriously look at creating employment opportunities.

This support structure (the committee of experts) would help alleviate all the concerns if we could be transparent about the organisation’s challenges.

Furthermore, it must be noted that there is an ANC elective conference later this year, and one is hoping that there will be clear policy direction regarding Eskom and state-owned entities in their entirety.

There is still hope that Eskom will become incredible again. Let us support all initiatives that aim to revive it. NYANISO QWESHA | Wynberg