‘No dependable and sustainable solution’: Shivambu gives Ramaphosa’s energy crisis plan the thumbs down

EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu has poured cold water on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s measures to resolve the country’s electricity crisis

Ramaphosa this week unveiled government’s plan to “fix Eskom and improve its existing fleet of power stations”.

He listed a number of proposals, including Eskom increasing its budget for maintenance and new green energy projects.

Ramaphosa also announced government will remove the licensing threshold for embedded power generation in an attempt to ease the energy crisis.

“It is been decided that over the next 12 months, Eskom will increase the budget allocated for critical maintenance to increase the reliability of its generation capacity.

“We are cutting red tape that has made it difficult for Eskom to buy maintenance spares and equipment within the required period to effect repairs,” said Ramaphosa.

Reacting to the plan, Shivambu said there was no dependable and sustainable solution.

“The sole purpose of Ramaphosa’s energy response plan was to assure the handlers he’s still going to give them business from SA’s energy crisis. The reality is there’s no dependable and sustainable solution that will come from greedy, capitalist energy scavengers,” he said.

Shivambu claimed the electricity crisis was caused by Ramaphosa and friends, calling for him to step down with immediate effect.

Eskom welcomed the announcement by Ramaphosa, saying it is in full support of the measures to address the long-running electricity crisis.

“These reforms will go a long way towards easing the power generation constraints the country has been grappling with for some 14 years. The reforms will accelerate the end of load-shedding and will expand and grow the electricity generation industry through structural changes,” said the power utility.

“Particularly pleasing to Eskom was that government made the moves to empower Eskom to speedily acquire additional generation capacity from existing independent power producers with excess capacity, to acquire spares and equipment from original equipment manufacturers and the resources to increase the funding of the maintenance budget.”

It said it has already reached out to the National Society of Black Engineers to ascertain if its members are interested in assisting Eskom to bolster its skills.

The utility said its efforts to acquire battery energy storage systems are at an advanced stage, with further tranches of rollout to follow “imminently”.

“Eskom looks forward to playing its part in the rapid and effective implementation of the president’s plan, and will partner with government, regulators, labour and the private sector to ensure we can bring an end to load-shedding as soon as we can.”

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