Government working to find money to buy Eskom diesel: Public enterprises

The department of public enterprises is urgently working with National Treasury and Eskom to find the money to buy diesel supplies to reduce the higher load-shedding stages now in force.

The electricity utility warned about a shortage of diesel last week, and said South Africans should expect more load-shedding in the coming months as it embarks on major repairs and capital investment projects that will increase the risk of outages.

On Sunday Eskom announced stage 5 load-shedding will be implemented during the evenings from 4pm until midnight from Monday to Wednesday and between stages 2 and 4 during the day.

The department said its minister Pravin Gordhan met Eskom board members led by chairperson Mpho Makwana on Sunday night as a result of serious concerns about the risk of higher levels of load-shedding in the coming months.

“All possible efforts are being made to ensure all the measures in the national electricity plan are implemented,” the department said.

Immediate targets include:

• Looking for savings within existing Eskom funds for the ongoing purchase of diesel and maintenance;
• Board assessment of the challenges Eskom faces in its fleet of power stations and the exceptional interventions that must be made to create more reliability in the their performance, and;
• Urgently seeking the assistance of all law enforcement bodies to immediately bring a halt to local level disruptions and criminal activities which impact on power stations.

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