Lack of electricity shocks ‘angry’ Ramaphosa

The dreaded news of stage 4 load shedding yesterday has not sat well with President Cyril Ramaphosa, who expressed renewed shock at the dysfunctionality of the parastatal.

Ramaphosa’s government undertook to unbundle Eskom last week in the president’s State of the Nation address, which unions, including labour federation Cosatu, said they would oppose.

Ratings agency Moody’s said although the intended split will allow for more transparency, it won’t do much to solve Eskom’s financial problems.

Speaking at the 32nd African Union heads of state summit yesterday, Ramaphosa said he was shocked and “quite angry” at the state of Eskom.

He said the solutions he and his government were charting would probably be difficult and painful, but the South African population would have to bite the bullet.

He added that the time of people getting away with not paying would have to end.

“If we want Eskom to survive, we have to pay for the electricity we use,” he said, adding that the government would continue with programmes to subsidise electricity for the poorest.

The president said the news that six generating units at Eskom were out of order or tripping was “most worrying and disturbing”.

He, however, expressed confidence in Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s work with the Eskom board, but that it would be important to stop relying entirely on Eskom for all the country’s power needs.

A new business model would be needed to prevent having “all our energy eggs in one basket”. – Citizen reporter

See also page 18