President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked Eskom to temporarily suspend the implementation of an 18.65% tariff increase by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) “as it would cause an injury” to South Africans.
“I have personally said to Eskom: ‘It will be an injury to our people if we implement this 18%, when we are going through load-shedding. Suspend it for a while,’ and so the Eskom board is going to discuss that because the tariff was decided by an independent agency, Nersa, at the request of Eskom,” said Ramaphosa on Sunday.
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Ramaphosa used the closing session of the ninth Free State ANC provincial elective conference at the Imvelo Safari Lodge in Mangaung in the Free State to address the energy crisis.
Ramaphosa spent the week in crisis meetings in a bid to come up with plans to relieve citizens from the crippling load-shedding.
The meetings came after Ramaphosa cancelled an important visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the in the Swiss resort of Davos last Sunday.
Eskom chair Mpho Makwana and CEO Andre de Ruyter, addressed media on current challenges facing the power utility on Sunday, saying South Africans should brace for permanent stage 2 and 3 load-shedding for the next two years.
Nersa granted the tariff — which has South Africans up in arms and political parties seeking court interventions — to Eskom from April 1.
Ramaphosa said the Eskom board would consider his request.
“We have been talking to people about the tariff.”
He acknowledged that the Eskom needed the finance to continue to generate power needed to keep the lights on.
“I have said and made a proposal to the Eskom board that, let us suspend this because it will not be fair to impose a tariff on our people while there is load-shedding. So Eskom is going to give consideration to that.”
“We [government] are alive to those hardships, and we are doing everything that we can to resolve this,” said Ramaphosa.
He said Eskom’s historic inadequate maintenance and delayed investment in building new power stations was the main problem.
“We are having load-shedding, which understandably is making the people of South Africa angry, frustrated and having a negative impact on the livelihoods of our people, the health of our people, the food production in our country and a negative impact on the economy.”
Ramaphosa said the government was also aware that businesses have been forced to shut their doors due to the rolling blackouts.
“Many people are reporting that their business are failing because of load-shedding.”
He said Eskom’s issues date back to 1998 when the country was informed that it needed to add capacity and that was neglected.
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