Pretoria - Former Eskom acting chief executive Matshela Koko said now that Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter has resigned, the power utility will be able to stop load shedding in the next six to 12 months.
“I firmly believe that Eskom's maintenance effort, coupled with operations discipline can stop load shedding in 6 to 12 months,” Koko wrote on Twitter.
Koko said said De Ruyter’s resignation signals a new beginning for Eskom.
Koko also reminded his followers that in March, he mentioned that diesel generators will power the 55th National Conference of the ANC.
True to form, it appears the ANC’s elective conference will start on Friday while the rest of the country battles Stage 5 load shedding power cuts, which equate to about 10 hours without power daily.
“Well, it is stage 5 load shedding till further notice, with two days to go to Conference, and Eskom is not even giving updates.”
Media reports now suggest De Ruyter informed the Eskom board of his decision to resign on Wednesday.
The country is currently experiencing Stage 5 load shedding, with some analysts expressing concern that the country could soon experience Stage 8 load shedding.
There had been ongoing calls for De Ruyter to be removed.
This year the country recorded over 150 days of rolling blackouts. It’s the worst year for load shedding yet.
The former head of Statistics South Africa Dr Pali Lehohla had also said De Ruyter should be replaced by an engineer.
“Eskom is an engineering-cum-economic behemoth. It is an engineering animal and an economic animal. At the moment, it is not led by engineers, nor by economists. So, you cannot expect it to perform. Instead, it is led by politicians and accountants and they are trying to understand the logic of Eskom.”
Lehohla said it would benefit South Africa immensely to have a qualified engineer like Koko to lead the struggling entity.
“I don’t care, deploy him there and arrest him later if you find him guilty of some other things. At least listen to him because he is one engineer who has been consistent on this,” he said.
Koko, his wife Mosima, and his two stepdaughters Koketso Choma and Koketso Aren were arrested in October on corruption charges.
The arrest of Koko and his family relates to a multi-billion rand contract Eskom entered with Swiss engineering company Asea Brown Bovei (ABB) back in 2015.
Koko was released on R300 000 bail.
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