The ANC is looking to China to rescue embattled power utility Eskom as it battles to keep the lights on. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe yesterday dismissed reports of proposals for the privatisation of Eskom, saying discussions in the ruling party were instead about adopting the Chinese model of capitalising state-owned enterprises."The Chinese system is simple. For example, it would give away a 30% stake in a state-owned enterprise and keep the rest. Then it capitalised the institution. That debate is ongoing."It is based on experience we have seen in China, which we think can work better with us rather than the privatisation we promised when the neo-liberal agenda was in the ascendency."Mantashe said the ANC was considering how China managed to change Lenovo into a world renowned technological enterprise by allying it with IBM and refining its technologies."There is no debate on privatisation. If you say 'privatisation' you are choosing an ideological part that is not in the debate," he said.ANC head of economic transformation Enoch Godongwana said recently that an ANC lekgotla last year had decided to sell off parts of Eskom.He said the move to sell a stake to pension fund entities such as the Public Investment Corporation was intended to raise money to deal with the national power utility's financial woes.Godongwana's comments have set off alarm bells inside the ANC's alliance partners, the SA Communist Party and labour federation Cosatu.Mantashe said there was no simple solution to load-shedding."Load-shedding will be a feature of our electricity supply for years."What is important now at Eskom is to accelerate the [power station] building projects, to commission Khusile, Medupi and Ingula, and to improve servicing of power stations," he said.The power stations are not expected to be completed until 2022.Mantashe said he could not speculate about the effect Eskom blackouts would have on the ANC's prospects in next year's local government elections.He boasted that the ANC government had connected 7million households to the national power grid."We have always owned up to the fact that the [power station] building programme started later than it should have, so we are not going to get an instant solution."We are owning up. I think the correct solution is to own up rather than manufacturing responses to appease the electorate," he said...