Ramokgopa contradicts himself again – this time about Eskom finances

Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has seemingly contradicted himself again regarding load shedding and the end of power cuts. 

According to Ramokgopa, there is a lack of grid capacity in the Northern Cape, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape which is hindering Eskom’s ability to incorporate new renewable energy sources. This issue is expected to worsen within the next year.

The minister was speaking at the South African Transmission Financing Seminar with Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Thursday.

R250 billion needed

At the seminar experts and stakeholders from the energy and financial sectors shared key insights on the financing and development of South Africa’s electricity transmission infrastructure for sustainable energy security. 

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Ramokgopa said the country’s load shedding crisis would not have been this dire had government acted early enough before 2007, when construction began on Medupi and Kusile power stations, to increase electricity generation capacity. 

“Insufficient investment in the transmission system, government’s financial constraints, and governance deficiencies have resulted in Eskom delaying investment in the maintenance, refurbishment and expansion of the national grid infrastructure,” said Ramokgopa. 

He said an estimated amount upwards of R250 billion was required to fund the expansion of South Africa’s grid.

Load shedding to end before elections

Previously, Ramokgopa said load shedding would be a thing of the past by the end of 2024, saying it would now end before the general elections. 

“When we went into winter of this year, we didn’t have the benefits of three generation units at Kusile Power Station. We also didn’t have the benefits of one generation unit at Koeberg Nuclear Power Station,” he said. 

READ MORE: Stage 6 cost the economy up to R1 billion a day – Ramokgopa

“So when you compute the energy availability factor, comparing year-on-year, it shows that we are on the ascending, and I know your grievances are primarily anchored on the fact that we are going to defeat and eliminate load shedding. It will not become a factor when we go into the elections.”

No money problems at Eskom

Appearing at the National Assembly for an oral reply on Wednesday, Ramokgopa also said Eskom did not have a “money problem” to buy diesel. 

He said the embattled power utility had set aside R30 billion to purchase diesel to help keep the lights on during the recent stage 6 load shedding.

Ramokgopa said the National Treasury allocated R254 billion to Eskom to address liquidity challenges, on top of the R30 billion.

“During the winter period of April to the end of July we underspent relative to our projections, so you are not sitting with a money problem,” he said.