Maimane lays out DA plan to rescue Eskom

The Department of Public Enterprises told MPs on Wednesday that the power utility is facing insolvency and without a bailout it may not survive beyond April.

South Africans have also been experiencing load-shedding since Sunday due to a lack of capacity at Eskom.

Maimane laid out the opposition party’s vision to solve the crisis at Eskom on the stairs of the National Assembly on Thursday.

"I think, when you make decisions in the midst of that type of crisis, you're not making decisions between good and bad, you're making decisions between worse and much worse.”

Maimane said the party’s plans include a campaign to name-and-shame those who do not pay for electricity.

"We've got to privatise the generation entities of Eskom to allow for diversification of energy to enter the grid,” he added.

Maimane said Eskom says immediately freeze the build on the last two outstanding units at Kusile, and instead look to bring on more IPPs to provide power.

"This will allow for IPPs to compete and to come on board. It's clear that Eskom’s debt is now spiralling out of control and is not dependant on two big coal bills, yet these (Kusile and Medupi) are not at full capacity due to the faulty designs.

“With the splitting off of the generation part of Eskom, they could look at selling off power stations to different IPPs. This will reduce the debt component and create competition within the generation sector. The transmission and distribution entity would manage the grid as an independent operator and source power from IPPs and Eskom generation.

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