In a weekly update on the state of South Africa’s power issues, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said there was significant under-investment by municipalities on their infrastructure.
MINISTER of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has revealed that the electricity distribution infrastructure in many municipalities is not in a good shape, leaving communities without power for weeks on end.
In a weekly update on the state of South Africa’s power issues, Ramokgopa said there was significant under-investment by municipalities on their infrastructure.
In a longitude study, conducted by Ramokgopa even before his appointment as Minister of Electricity, he said they found that from 2011 to 2022, more than R30 billion was underspent by municipalities across South Africa.
This money could have been used to invest in the refurbishment, replenishment and replacement of the main assets in distribution of electricity by municipalities to customers.
Ramokgopa said that while there were fiscal issues both on Eskom and the municipalities’ sides, the poor distribution infrastructure was more towards the municipalities.
“That is why communities are left without power for days and weeks on end.
“Transformers and substations fail as a result because demand exceeds the installed capacity of those assets. The assets cannot sustain the demand and pressure put on them and they explode,” he put it simply.
This, he said, was a direct result of the municipalities’ failure and inability to maintain their assets.
In addition, he said that municipalities had an overdue debt of about R63.2 billion to Eskom. According to Ramokgopa, the top 20 municipalities accounted for about 77% of that amount, adding up to about R48 billion.
“This is adding more debt to Eskom and is undermining Eskom’s ability to invest money in generation, transmission and distribution,” he said.
