Briefing the media on Wednesday, from Eskom’s headquarters at Megawatt Park, President Cyril Ramaphosa cited sabotage as one of the factors that has led to South Africans suffering prolonged nationwide power cuts since early December.
He said other factors include aging infrastructure, technical problems at new power stations, and rainfall resulting in wet coal.
“Investigations are underway and I’ve urged management to speed up those investigations so that those who are found to have participated in this act of sabotage are held to account,” Ramaphosa said.
In the same breath, the president announced that Eskom management and executives will not take leave over the festive season, to ensure the country does not experience loadshedding.
Ramaphosa said the Eskom management have pledged that there will no loadshedding between 17 December and 13 January 2020.
Eskom to improve generation capacity by 5,000MW
Eskom board and management have proposed to improve the generation capacity by 5,000MW, this plan is expected to be presented by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe to Cabinet on Friday.
It is reported that among the proposals include self-generation and the use of floating generators.
On 9 December Eskom announced that it would be implementing Stage 6 loadshedding following a technical problem at the Medupi Power Station. Read more
The rolling power cuts saw the power utility to rotationally loadshed 6,000MW.
However, the new revelation of sabotage points the problem to have come from Tutuka power station. this is a developing story.
Author: Babalwa Bungane
This article was originally published on ESI Africa and is republished with permission with minor editorial changes.
