Huge struggle ahead to overcome Eskom crisis, warns Gordhan
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has apologised to South Africans for the latest round of rolling blackouts.
Gordhan and Eskom board Jabu Mabuza briefed the media on the situation at the power utility in Rosebank on Tuesday.
While he acknowledged the burden placed on South Africans, Gordhan said there is no magic formula to end load-shedding.
"We understand the frustration, we don't have a magic formula. This is not about whether Pravin Gordhan, Jabu Mabuza or Phakamani Hadebe singlehandedly have a magic wand to wave and say load-shedding is over. It's going to be a huge struggle ahead of us to actually overcome this crisis."
Gordhan listed aging Eskom infrastructure and power lines which have been cut off at the cyclone-hit Cohara Bassa Power Station in Mozambique as some of the reasons for the power cuts.
He said teams are working around the clock to determine the technical challenges facing the power utility.
"You have the presidential task team created by the president in January, which has presented a report. You also have the Eskom board and management developing a turnaround plan and a generation plan, and right now we also have a voluntary basis, 12 or 14 engineers that are visiting power stations to give us an independent view of what's going wrong and how quickly we can repair it."
Mabuza said it was clear that money which was supposed to be used for maintenance over the past five years was stolen.
While he could not say how long load-shedding will last, Mabuza was confident that the country is far from a total blackout.