As Eskom announced Stage 6 load shedding until further notice, energy experts have called for the National Energy Crisis Committee established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to provide regular updates on progress it is making to alleviate the worsening energy security crisis.
AS ESKOM announced Stage 6 load shedding until further notice, energy experts have called for the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECC) established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to provide regular updates on progress it is making to alleviate the worsening energy security crisis.
The concern about lack of information on load shedding comes after Eskom announced that it would escalate load shedding to Stage 6 throughout the day and night as it had severe capacity constraints.
In July last year, Ramaphosa cut short an international trip to address the nation on the severe load shedding. He then announced the establishment of the NECC, which is chaired by the director-general in the Presidency and brings together all the departments and entities involved in the provision of electricity.
However, there have been sporadic reports from the committee, especially as the country experienced 205 days of rolling blackouts last year.
Professor Sampson Mamphweli, an energy expert from Stellenbosch University, urged the government to share with South Africans what was happening with the energy crisis plan.
“We know that it is going to be difficult for the first 10 months of this year. It will take at least 10 months for the operation of the president’s plan to kick in and where we will have a stable supply of electricity,” Mamphweli said, adding that if Ramaphosa’s plan was executed, load shedding may decrease in the next 24 months.
“Right now the challenge we are facing is that government is not communicating what is happening with the president’s plan.”
Mamphweli, who is part of the expert committee advising the government, said they were not allowed to communicate on what interventions were being put in place and he urged the government to “put the information in the public domain”.
Another energy expert, Chris Yelland, said the level of communication from the NECC has not been good.
“The plan was unveiled in July last year and the level of communication could be better. I am not suggesting a family meeting every time, but there needs to be better communication through the media every now and again.”
Yelland said the public was in the dark about the work of the NECC or what work streams had been established.
He said the lack of information regarding the deployment of soldiers to power plants was understandable as some situations needed different levels of communication.
Ramaphosa, when announcing the establishment of the NECC, said the initiatives were aimed at improving the performance of Eskom’s existing fleet of power stations; accelerating the procurement of new generation capacity; increasing private investment in generation capacity; and transforming the electricity sector and positioning it for future sustainability.
Meanwhile, DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia has described as irrational and “disastrous” a proposal by Ramaphosa to move Eskom from the Department of Public Enterprises to the Ministry of Energy.
The ANC adopted a resolution at its recent national elective conference that specified that state-owned companies operating in specific economic sectors should be overseen by the relevant government departments.
Cachalia said the country’s official opposition party was against the move and would fight it.
“We share the opinion of Professor Anton Eberhard, who has warned that it would be a grave mistake to move Eskom to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) or even a separate energy ministry. According to Eberhard, there is an obvious conflict of interest in an energy ministry being Eskom’s shareholder while also having responsibility for competition and regulation in the sector,” Cachalia said.
The DA said if the move took place, Eskom would never be fully unbundled and would retain its dominant market position, “and the envisaged open power exchange and market would not in all probability be implemented”.
Cachalia said the move was “clearly an outcome of a political deal to keep President Ramaphosa in power for another term”.
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter announced his resignation from the power utility late last year, but remains in the position until the end of March.
Cachalia said in the run-up to De Ruyter’s resignation, energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s “destructive influence was on full display, accusing De Ruyter of a raft of unsubstantiated and unconscionable actions”.
“He is on record as saying ‘Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state’.”
