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ANC wants Eskom to get house in order

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The ANC wants to ramp up economic growth but the party says it will only be able to do this if it fixes Eskom and ensures energy security.

ANC head of economic transformation Mmamoloko Kubayi. Picture: Jairus Mmutle/GCIS

THE ANC wants to ramp up economic growth but the party says it will only be able to do this if it fixes Eskom and ensures energy security.

The party not only wants Eskom to deal with load shedding, but also to ensure that it improves its operational and financial performance.

Eskom has over the last few months implemented a series of blackouts leading to businesses complaining about huge financial losses.

The power utility has also decried deliberate sabotage at some of its power stations.

The ANC’s head of economic transformation, Mmamoloko Kubayi, said on Sunday the country would have to lift the level of investments from 15% to 25% of GDP if it wants to achieve some of the targets.

This related to fighting poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Kubayi said they need to get more young people into the labour market.

Statistics South Africa has revealed figures showing an increase in unemployment in the country. Millions of people remain outside of the labour force.

Kubayi said they need to do certain things to turn the economy around and this includes fixing Eskom.

“If we are to achieve what we are raising, there are things that we need to do. Within the energy and mineral resources, we are saying load shedding is crippling South Africa and that is an acknowledgement. We have to restore energy security as it is critical for lifting confidence and investment and creating jobs because more are lost, the more the country is not productive,” said Kubayi.

“We must improve Eskom’s performance both in terms of operationally and financially. The procurement of electricity in terms of the Integrated Resource Plan has to improve. All we are saying is that let’s implement the IRP.”

She added that some of the policy objectives have been achieved, as laid out in the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan that was unveiled by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2020.

This includes spectrum allocation after the auction that took place a few months ago.

The other area was the bid windows for energy generation.

The government reduced the threshold for embedded generation to 100MW.

Kubayi said they will continue with the implementation of key reforms in the economy.

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