Parliament - Eskom has not played open cards with the public on the latest round of load shedding and should, therefore, come to Parliament to explain the situation, Democratic Alliance member of Parliament (MP) Natasha Mazzone said on Friday.
"The floundering, confusion and dishonesty can no longer continue. The public needs clear answers from Eskom and Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, on the state of affairs at the beleaguered power utility," Mazzone said.
She said the DA has written to the portfolio committee on public enterprises to ask that it call Gordhan and the Eskom executive and board to appear before it and "explain their evident inability to deal with the crisis".
Mazzone's statement came after Eskom said it would implement Stage One load shedding on Friday but announced in the morning that this was being escalated to Stage Two from midday due to a major setback at Medupi power station.
Eskom began load shedding on Wednesday, blaming the scheduled blackouts on boiler leaks at six power-generating units.
Some units have since come back online. Eskom executive chairman Jabu Mabuza on Thursday apologised to the nation for the disruption and gave an undertaking that load-shedding would be contained to stage one on Friday and that there would be none at the weekend.
African News Agency/ANA
* Get the latest load shedding schedule
.
** For the latest #Loadshedding news click
.
*** Receive IOL's top stories via WhatsApp by sending your name to 0745573535.