Eskom blackouts threat to polls
THREATS of labour unrest at Eskom continued yesterday as police bosses warned that the embattled power utility does not have enough generators to accommodate all voting stations in the event of load shedding during elections.
Police management yesterday appeared before Parliament’s portfolio committee on police where they briefed MPs on their state of readiness for the 2019 general elections, set to take place on May 8.
The warning came on the same day Public Enterprise Minister Pravin Gordhan admitted there would be no quick fixes to the power crisis.
“We understand their frustrations. 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,” Gordhan said.
He said if Eskom had installed 48 000 megawatts in the country, “why do we have only 28000MW available on an average day.
“Where does that 20 000MW actually disappear to?”
Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Sehlahle Masemola told MPs work has begun in preparation for elections but Eskom remains a threat to proceedings.
“Currently, Eskom does not have the number of generators equivalent to voting stations. What we will do as departments is go back and see how each department can contribute to ensure that when the day of elections comes, there is capacity. We will make sure that there is no load shedding on that specific day,” said Masemola.
The team has identified 22925 voting stations across the country, with KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape having the highest numbers.
Frustrated MPs have called on the team to ensure that load shedding does not affect voting stations, and encourage “vote rigging”.
Responding to questions posed by the EFF’s Phillip Mhlongo on whether the police will have a special forum to deal with violations of electoral code, Masemola said they were working with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on the matter.
“There is a protocol that will be signed soon between the NPA and the Department of Justice that details when election-related cases are reported and how are they going to be dealt with.
“There is not going to be special courts for elections, but cases related to electoral violations will be prioritised. This protocol will come into being regarding these specific cases,” said Masemola.
The SAPS will also train 100 officials in each province next month as a contingency.
The police service has a budget of R180 million for its plan but this might not be sufficient and it could require more resources, MPs also heard.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) yesterday insisted that it would continue with its planned march to ANC headquarters in Johannesburg next Saturday to protest against Eskom’s contracts with independent power producers and power purchase agreements.
“Eskom workers are very angry towards the attitude demonstrated by the leadership in government who are, in most instances, unable to explain what the unbundling would mean to them in terms of job security,” the union said yesterday following its meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, Energy Minister Jeff Radebe and Gordhan on Monday.
NUM general secretary David Sipunzi told Independent Media that he could not say that the union received a firm commitment from Ramaphosa that the unbundling would not result in job losses.
Sipunzi said investors were dictating to Eskom and would threaten not give the utility money should it fail to retrench workers.
Gordhan said the answer to the question of how long load shedding will last was that Eskom still needed to complete its investigation and would come back in the next 10 to 14 days and tell the country where it stood on the challenges facing it.