With Stage 6 rolling blackouts over the weekend, the electricity crisis in South Africa shows no signs of being resolved any time soon. The deepening power cuts left consumers in the dark for hours three times a day — and even more, in some parts of the country.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Waking up to Stage 6, now Eskom execs are fighting to fend off Stage 8 power cuts”
The weekend’s blackouts prompted President Ramaphosa to cut short his trip to the US. He released a statement on Tuesday shortly after returning home.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Ramaphosa: “Solving the electricity challenge is vital for South Africa’s investment drive.”
Some opposition parties said his return from the US was a public relations exercise that did nothing to help resolve the crisis.
Also on Tuesday, the DA held a media briefing to outline its plans to deal with the power problem.
“At Stage 6 — and with talk of even higher stages of load shedding if the situation at the stricken generation units doesn’t improve soon — we are teetering on the brink of a complete collapse of our grid. This will spell disaster for our entire country,” said DA leader John Steenhuisen.
“This is the second time this year that we have breached Stage 6, but whereas last time it was only for short periods as units were brought back online, the language this time around is far more ominous.”
‘Dissolve National Energy Crisis Committee’
Steenhuisen proposes that industry experts from outside Eskom be brought in, but says Ramaphosa should first immediately dissolve the National Energy Crisis Committee.
On bringing in someone to lead Eskom out of the crisis, he said: “It is critical that this person is both apolitical and a leading expert in the energy field, and that he or she is sufficiently empowered to do whatever it takes to stabilise our current generation fleet and bring additional generation on board, without having their hands tied by the red tape that has held our recovery back until now.”
According to Steenhuisen, this independent expert should not have to “answer to racial bean-counters in any ANC ministry, and [have] the power to make decisions on the procurement of additional electricity from independent producers, free from the stifling regulations imposed by the likes of Minister Mantashe and Minister Patel, who is still insisting on 35% localisation for bid window 5 — clearly oblivious to the fact that we are approaching a national catastrophe”.
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The EFF is of a different view. The red berets want Eskom’s entire board fired, including CEO André de Ruyter and COO Jan Oberholzer.
“The incompetence and arrogance of Eskom executives has plunged South Africa into a perpetual and unwarranted darkness that is killing businesses and livelihoods,” said the EFF in a statement.
“The collapse of Eskom and the failure to prove dependable and consistent energy supply are meant to render the country’s electricity utility redundant and useless.”
The EFF argued that other than the appointment of competent people, the country needs a sustainable and practical long-term solution and a balanced energy mix… through nuclear, renewable, coal and other sources.
IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa appears to agree with the EFF on axing top executives. The IFP also wants the process to appoint new board members to be made public.
“First and foremost we have no confidence in the board, executive and the CEO. They’ve quite simply failed to turn things around at Eskom and we are calling for a transparent public process of interviews of all those who will be appointed to the board and executive,” said Hlengwa.
The IFP said there had been a culture of people appointed to head Eskom without due process. In addition to this, Hlengwa said there was a need for diversification of the country’s energy supply and the introduction of the IPP.
Presidential ‘PR exercise’
On Ramaphosa’s return to the country from his trip abroad, the IFP said: “That is a PR exercise. The president was already fully aware of the load shedding crisis when he left. His return does not have a material effect on the people or the economy. The fundamental issue is the absence of consequence management at Eskom. At some point we were told about sabotage. Nothing has ever come out of that bold statement.”
The Freedom Front Plus says SA’s energy crisis has been left unattended for far too long. Spokesperson Wouter Wessels says Eskom’s immediate task should be to tackle its high salary bill.
“It is one of the power utilities with the most employees in the world, and a very high salary bill. And yet we’re producing less electricity. If you look at the increase in the number of staff members in the last 10 to 15 years, it’s quite significant, but the production of electricity has declined.”
On Ramaphosa cutting his trip short, Wessels said, “It is too little, too late. As deputy president, he was responsible for the turnaround strategy for Eskom. He failed. His executive has failed to prevent the current crisis. To cut his trip short is a PR exercise and will achieve nothing.”
‘Not a Ramaphosa failure, but an ANC failure’
Political analyst Xolani Dube said the government’s failure to address the energy crisis could not be attributed to a single person, but rather to the entire leadership of the ANC, including former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, who did not give it the urgent attention it required.
“I think we have to accept that it is not Ramaphosa who has failed us, but it is the ANC as a whole. The issue of energy started way back… Thabo Mbeki never took it seriously, and now we are here — so it is not a Ramaphosa problem… it was the ANC that was not ready to govern this country.”
Dube said it remained to be seen whether the ANC would be punished by the electorate in the 2024 general elections. DM
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