Eskom interventions 'did not rely on state of disaster': electricity minister

Poor planning, underinvestment and low morale are at the heart of Eskom's problems, electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Thursday.  

Some of the interventions needed do not rely on a state of disaster to be declared, he added.

In his state of the nation address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster to address load-shedding and, barely three months later, it was lifted this week.

Briefing media at the Union Buildings, Ramokgopa said he has visited 15 power stations to get an understanding of the problems.

“I am more than confident we will end load-shedding," he said.

Keeping up morale by extending the life of power stations will give Eskom time to obtain the additional 6,000MW generation capacity it needs, he said. 

“There is nothing relying on the state of disaster. You go back to the original equipment manufacturer and invoke the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act and it could either be because of an emergency or sole provider, whichever one is appropriate.  

“Making investments in cooling towers and refurbishing [generating] plants has nothing to do with the state of disaster. Returning units at the time you committed to has nothing to do with issues of a state of disaster. It has everything to do with planning.” 

Asked whether declaring the state of disaster was unnecessary Ramokgopa said: “No, I am not suggesting there was no need for the declaration for a state of disaster.”  

The state of disaster was declared because the electricity challenges affected other services, including the provisions of water. 

“Reservoirs are at elevated levels, they are not being fed because the volume [of water] that needs to be pumped up there needs electricity.”  

Ramokgopa said the farming community told him about 23% of their revenue relies on a reliable energy supply. The automotive manufacturing industry and importers have said the total share of South Africa’s production in the continent has declined from 73% to about 52% due of load-shedding. 

“I sat with one of the leading hospital groups yesterday [Wednesday] who shared the implications and this shows load-shedding affects all of these areas. From a generation point of view on the interventions that can be made, [they] did not rely on the declaration of the state of disaster.”  

The interventions introduced during the state of disaster remain in place.  

“When we remove the state of disaster it does not remove those interventions because it’s out of the state of disaster that you have those interventions in place.”  

He said the cabinet has applied its mind sufficiently in coming to a decision.  

“It gets to be reviewed and revised all the time and a determination was made that we need to terminate the declaration,” he said. 

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