‘I genuinely believed we’d found the solution to our energy problems’ — Ramaphosa on his 2015 promise

President Cyril Ramaphosa sought to defend comments he made seven years ago that load-shedding would be a thing of the past in 18 months to two years.

He said he, like many others in the country, had put their hopes on the Medupi and Kusile power stations coming into operation and boosting energy generation.

“In another 18 months to two years, you will forget the challenges we had with relation to power and energy and Eskom ever happened,” Ramaphosa told the National Council of Provinces in September 2015.

A clip of Ramaphosa saying this has since surfaced online. 

Reminded in parliament by DA leader John Steenhuisen of these words on Thursday, Ramaphosa said he made the promise based on information he had at the time.

“Our energy architecture is quite complicated, and as I’ve said before it did not start yesterday. We’ve been through this over a number of years.

“Yes, in 2015 I did say this, based on the information we had and also based on the Medupi and Kusile units coming into operation.

“Because so much money had been invested in those two mega power stations, many of us around the nation thought the two stations were going to boost our energy generation.

“I genuinely did believe then that we had found the solution to our energy problems  but, lo and behold, we are where we are today and it has not been the willful and clearly planned intention of anyone I work with. This has been a calamity of enormous proportions, which we all admit,” said Ramaphosa.

Steenhuisen had also asked Ramaphosa how energy minister Gwede Mantashe and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan remained in their positions while businesses and households were plunged into darkness, sometimes for up to 12 hours a day.

Ramaphosa rejected the calls to fire the two ministers responsible for energy provision, saying the rolling blackouts were not planned by anyone.

“Two weeks ago, to have almost 50% of our electricity generating capacity collapsing, one after the other, is not something planned by the minister nor by the Eskom CEO. It is something that happened and we are dealing with it,” he said.

Ramaphosa said when he announced the broader plan on energy almost two months ago, government had not foreseen Eskom would lose 50% of its capacity.

“In fact, what we wanted to do was to add more capacity and repair and maintain the fleet.

“It’s a process that is underway. Admittedly, some mistakes have been made along the way. We are looking at that and will be following through on what needs to be done.”

Ramaphosa revealed the costs to complete Medupi were close to R19bn, and the costs to complete Kusile were around R14bn.

All six Medupi units have reached the stage of commercial operation and the focus was on completing the balance of the plant and remedial works

Four out of six Kusile units are in commercial operation and the focus was on completing the commissioning of the remaining two units, he said.

“Eskom’s intention is to complete the remaining scope of works in Medupi and Kusile within the current project budgets and approved by the Eskom board.”

Ramaphosa said Eskom was making steady progress developing and implementing effective technical solutions to major plants defects at both power stations. As a result, the availability and reliability of commissioned units at Medupi and Kusile is improving on an ongoing basis.

The effective correction of major plant defects at Medupi and Kusile will ensure the plants achieve their contractual performance, with improved reliability and availability factors.

Ramaphosa said before correction of the major plant defects, energy availability at Medupi was 64% measured over 12 months. During this financial year, the availability factor at Medupi was around 85%.

The figures exclude the impact of the turbine incident at Medupi unit 4, which is currently off line for repairs, he said.

The plant’s performance improvement represents a significant improvement in energy output for the station in support of the national gird.

Ramaphosa said processes were underway, including investigations into what resulted in flawed designs and flawed operational capability at the two plants. The investigations were also looking at possible overpricing and corruption.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.