Eskom crisis ‘bigger than we imagine’ - Koko
Former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko says the power utility has been dumped into a crisis of epic proportions.
Koko, along with energy expert Ted Blom and analyst Yamkela Spengane, gave a lecture on the ailing power utility on Wednesday.
The lecture was held at the Tshwane University of Technology Business Campus.
Koko disagrees with the statement by Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan that the issues at the state owned entity is manageable.
Koko says the previous administration failed the utility by not heeding the warnings.
"What went wrong? It was the failure of 1998 White Paper. It’s the failure of the ANC government that does not have the humility to say the white paper failed. We set Eskom up to fail and Eskom has not recovered and we are paying an arm and a leg.
"And there's nothing wrong, you make mistakes, as long as you can self-correct but this government is incapable of self-correcting.”
Koko believes the crisis at Eskom is in a far worse that the government is letting on.
"But you've got 10 000 megawatts more. Then you come up and say on top of the 10 000 that I have added since 2007, I am short of 6 000 megawatts to maintain a stable grid. You had 42 000, you added 10 000 plus renewables and then you are short 6 000 megawatts. That's a crisis of the biggest proportion.
"And this is where I disagree with Mr Gordhan when he says it’s a crisis we can manage. This is not manageable. This is a big crisis."
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