Measures are in place to avoid grid collapse, says Eskom on Malema’s doomsday prediction

Power utility Eskom says the national electricity grid is by no means at a higher or imminent risk of a collapse.

According to the power utility, it would take an “unforeseen” and “sudden” sequence of events that results in a cascading collapse of the transmission or generation system, leading to a complete loss of supply across the country.

Eskom was responding to claims that complete darkness was knocking at South Africa’s door.

‘Total grid collapse’

Speaking at the Economic Freedom Fighters’ press briefing on Monday, Julius Malema warned South Africans that in the next two weeks, there is going to be complete darkness.

“We’re almost at the point of grid collapse. It’s a reality that South Africans must know, that we’re heading to darkness and ANC politicians are continuing business as usual, as if we’re not in a crisis. We are in a deep, deep crisis,” warned Malema.

“Cellphone networks will not work, water, even if we have it, we won’t receive it because it needs electricity. Nothing is going to function, we’re heading for a disaster, worse than what Covid was. No one will go to work, the dead will have to be buried the same day because there will not be fridges to keep them.

“No generator is meant to operate 24 hours, it’s only meant to be an intervention for a short while. Even those who have generators will not be saved from the mess we’re going into.”

Malema it is for these reasons that his party took to the streets in March.

“History will absolve us. We were called names, we were ridiculed and insulted. Police and the army were called on us for trying to protect us from where we are. They are just calling it stage 10 for a nice word, the reality is that it’s darkness, and it’s not going to be darkness for 12 or 24 hours. At times it’s going to take three to four days, at times it will take a week or a month without electricity. The whole leadership must go.”

Eskom Low likelihood of grid collapse

In a statement on Tuesday evening, Eskom assured South Africans that there were measures in place to avoid the collapse of the power system. Load shedding, according to the power utility, is one of these mechanisms.

“The risk of a national blackout, while inherent to the operation of a large power system, has an extremely low likelihood of materialising given the implementation of a number of control measures, including load shedding,” Eskom said.

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“Eskom has robust contingency plans in place to deal with such an eventuality at the Enlit Africa conference today, interim GCE Calib Cassim reiterated that there are several controls in place and that he doesn’t lose sleep on the issue.

“This is due to the confidence in the staff at the System Operator who have the competence to manage the tight system for the past three years.”

Short-term plans for load shedding

During a media briefing earlier this month, Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, warned South Africans that the next 150 days would be “very difficult”.

This as the winter season approaches and Eskom expects an increase in demand. According to Ramokgopa, the expected increase will be anything from 3 2000MW to 3 7000MW.

He said the government and Eskom were working on short-term measures to relieve the expected increased impact of load shedding during the winter season.

READ MORE: Electricity minister warns that the next 150 days will be ‘very difficult’