Ramaphosa conveniently ignores Kusile is a disaster overseen by his government

Now we can relax. President Cyril Ramaphosa says we have “turned a corner” when it comes to load shedding. But have we really?

Kusile power station’s units – four out of the five – should be back in operation by the end of the year… yet we are not sure how much they will be adding to Eskom’s national grid or how long it will be before they go down again.

ALSO READ: Kusile unit return ‘a temporary fix’, warns energy expert

By presenting the recommissioning of Kusile units as a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, Ramaphosa conveniently ignores that the whole power station was a multi-billion disaster overseen by his government.

In other words, while we may have indeed “turned a corner”, that obstruction to the path of uninterrupted electricity supply was put there by the ruling party and its sundry looters and incompetents.

And for as long as the current conditions exist where the looting of Eskom continues – as even Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa himself conceded recently – then the light at the end of this particular tunnel will continue to be loadshed.

ALSO READ: Eskom on track to end load shedding with another Kusile unit now online

Far from celebrating, we should mourn the fact that we still do not have enough electricity and, without that power, any attempts to grow the economy are doomed.

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