Minister of Public Enterprises Malusi Gigaba, yesterday backed down on a warning that he would not tolerate any further construction delays at Eskom’s Medupi power station.
In a cautiously phrased statement yesterday, Gigaba said: “It is understandable that capital projects of this size do come across challenges.”
Visiting the Medupi site in April, Gigaba warned that “heads will roll” if Medupi’s unit 6 did not come on stream in December.
“The statement was referring to what we had picked up, which was on issues around contractors when we visited Medupi. But we will also do our own assessment to see who’s at fault,” Gigaba’s spokesman, Mayihlome Tshwete, said yesterday.
Gigaba stated during that visit that “necessary penalties will be at hand should any delays be experienced”.
Tshwete said during that visit the department was made aware of a number of challenges that put the December 2013 deadline at risk but it was never communicated to them until last month that there would be a delay.
“But even though there is a risk, you don’t want to go public and say the deadline will not be met, because contractors will not push to deliver on what they’d promised,” said Tshwete.
He said Gigaba had undertaken a number of interventions to avoid further delays in the commissioning of unit 6.
These included an instruction to Eskom’s board to established a sub-committee focusing on mega projects, which include Medupi, Kusile, Ingula and 765 transmission lines.
The sub-committee would monitor its progress and report any emerging risks to the minister that might require his attention.
The minister also split the responsibilities of Eskom’s finance director and group capital. A new executive for group capital will be appointed soon.