President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that state-owned power utility Eskom has been a “bed of corruption” for years and the current load-shedding the country is experiencing is a product of this malpractice.
Addressing lawmakers in the National Assembly during question time on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the current challenges facing Eskom developed over the years, thereby excusing the current leadership of the power utility from blame for the poor state of affairs.
The president also said the load-shedding and power crisis was not a “willful and planned” intention of anyone in government, dismissing opposition calls for him to fire Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Gordhan Pravin, the Public Enterprise Minister.
He admitted that his government had been a huge failure in terms of energy security, as the country faced its worst load shedding to date when it reached Stage 6 that saw consumers spending half a day without electricity.
“This has been a calamity of enormous proportions. I mean, just two weeks ago, to have almost 50% of our electricity generation just collapsing one after another last week,” Ramaphosa said.
He said that Eskom’s challenges led to delays in work of key energy projects like Medupi and Kusile power stations, and the loss of their combined output of 4,800 MW because of corruption.
“Current management is unravelling a lot of corruption. And even as people say they must go, they are becoming so focused on unravelling corruption,” the president said.
Ramaphosa said that he believed that had the new Medupi and Kusile power plants been fully operational, the country would not have an energy crisis and the resulting daily load shedding.
NM/jn/APA