Old Eskom power stations will be maintained to ensure there is electricity, says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has said work is being done to maintain Eskom’s old power stations to ensure that electricity is made available to South Africans.

This after load shedding returned on Saturday evening, ending on Monday. Eskom announced on Tuesday that there would be no load shedding expected on the day, despite a constrained and vulnerable electricity system.

Speaking at an ANC pre-January 8 mass mobilisation in Pampierstad, Northen Cape, on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said the governing party’s national executive committee (NEC) would bring under the spotlight the scourge of high levels of unemployment in South Africa and the country’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs), in particular, Eskom.

Ramaphosa said one of the challenges beleaguering the power utility was that many of its power stations were old.

“So we are working on ensuring that we maintain those old power stations and make sure that there is electricity,” Ramaphosa said.

He added that focus would also be placed on Eskom’s new power stations.

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“We also have a big unemployment problem and we are not the only ones in the whole world [who do],” he said.

He said countries such as Nambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini and Botswana also had high levels of unemployment.

“Many of those countries have the same problem that we have of not having jobs,” Ramaphosa said.

He gave an assurance that all attention was focused on coming up with strategies, plans, initiatives and interventions that would lead to job creation.

“We are going to be focusing on job creation and on ensuring that our companies in the country do indeed create jobs and that is why we are mobilising investments to come [into the country],” Ramaphosa said.

The governing party is expected to hold its January 8 statement celebrations in the Northern Cape town of Kimberley – marking the 108th anniversary of the ANC – on Saturday at the Tafel Lager Park Stadium (formerly Absa Stadium).

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