ANC aims to end rolling power cuts by December

On Tuesday, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula briefed the media on the outcomes of the two-day national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla that deliberated on the country’s crippling energy crisis and the renewal of the party ahead of next year’s general elections.

Mbalula said the NEC lekgotla “encouraged” President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national state of disaster.

He said, in his presentation, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told the lekgotla an additional 46 000 megawatts would be needed to bolster the grid’s current 26 000 megawatts capacity.

“Consequently, the National Chairperson [Gwede Mantashe] in his presentation advocated for the improvement of the performance of Eskom’s existing power stations whilst upgrading and expanding current capacities and capabilities in the context of the Energy Action Plan and the Just Energy Transition as proposed by the National Energy Crisis Committee,” Mbalula added.

Mbalula said declaring the state of disaster will allow for extraordinary interventions to release the necessary resources to capacitate the struggling power utility.

The envisaged interventions include prioritisation of maintenance, management, and security of Eskom power plants; expediting of the procurement of emergency power; relief and support to poor households and small and medium-sized enterprises; mitigation of the decision by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) regarding Eskom tariffs on people and the economy; and curbing the outward migration of management and technical skill from Eskom.

READ: Ramaphosa says ‘broad consensus’ in ANC on national state of disaster for power crisis

“Lekgotla also called for the acceleration of the plans of the committee such that there is no load-shedding by the end of the year. In meeting this objective, the NEC agreed that all measurers should be taken to protect, rebuild and save Eskom,’ Mbalula added.

However, calls for a national state of disaster have been met with some resistance, after the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) labelled it an “empty pretence of doing something about the energy crisis”, but will not end the ongoing blackouts.

The red berets have accused the ANC-led government of using tragedy and disaster to loot the state coffers, drawing examples from the multiple corruption allegations levelled against high-ranking officials implicated in PPE fraud.  

“If South Africa were to go under a state of disaster due to the energy crisis, the puppets of imperialism who have already taken loans from the USA to destroy our coal industry will utilise the lack of oversight by government institutions on their decisions, to privatise Eskom and destroy our energy sovereignty. Additionally, there will be an unregulated approval of the plugging of parasitic Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) to South Africa’s electricity grid, further bleeding our coffers dry in order to enrich Ramaphosa and his handlers, " read the EFF’s statement.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance has supported the call for the declaration provided there is full transparency on the part of government.