Parliament - Eskom’s load shedding is not a sign of an electricity “crisis”, according to ANC MPs, who also called on South Africans to defend the power utility from “liberal attacks” and from calls of privatisation.
MPs were debating President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address for the second day on Wednesday, with the power crisis coming under the spotlight.
Zuma said during his address last week that the short- and medium-term plan for Eskom involves improved maintenance of power stations, enhancing the electricity generation capacity and managing the electricity demand.
He said the long-term plan involves finalising an energy security master plan.
“As a priority, we are going to stabilise Eskom’s finances to enable the utility to manage the current period. In this regard, government will honour its commitment to give Eskom around R23 billion in the next fiscal year,” said Zuma.
He said the “war room” established by the cabinet in December was working “diligently” around the clock with Eskom to stabilise the electricity supply system and contain the load shedding.
ANC MP Zukiswa Rantho said South Africans should “defend Eskom from these liberal attacks”, and should take ownership through ensuring people use electricity sparingly.
“The load shedding we are experiencing is not a crisis, but it is an instrument used to find a balance between the demand and supply of electricity.
“The people can’t govern under private ownership. Eskom is our company as South Africans, and 100 percent owned by South Africans,” said Rantho.
The party is confident the government “is in control of the current challenge”.
Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown, meanwhile, announced that Medupi power station’s unit six turbine commissioning had reached a “critical milestone with 3 000 revolutions per minute optimum speed”.
The synchronisation of the unit has been delayed for more than six weeks after Eskom embarked on a cautious route to ensure all systems were in place before synchronisation.
“This milestone paves the way for the synchronisation of Medupi’s unit six and I expect it to take place within weeks. I want to congratulate Eskom on this important milestone,” Brown said during the State of the Nation Address debate in the National Assembly.
Brown added that the “main problem” is not that the country does not have enough generating capacity. “As I have said in this House before, when all our power stations are up and running at the same time, we have much more electricity than the very highest level of demand in any year.
“To put that into numbers, we have about 15 percent more than we need now.
“Technically, that is referred to as the ‘reserve margin’ and, globally, 15 percent is considered to be an acceptable level,” said Brown.
She said that in 20 years, the country has been able to increase the number of electricity users in this country, when largely a “white minority had electricity”.
“We couldn’t have that with a privatised Eskom.”
She added the government is also in discussion with business and labour regarding the feasibility of other innovative proposals for reducing demand at peak periods. These included making changes to shift times.
Political Bureau