Eskom is being deliberately sabotaged to justify privatisation – EFF

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have accused Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the chairperson of the Eskom board Jabu Mabuza of “deliberately sabotaging Eskom so as to build a case for privatisation of electricity”.

In a statement on Tuesday, the red berets expressed its concern about the current implementation of load shedding, which the party said is being “carried out by the incompetent leadership” of the power utility “and the interfering minister” Gordhan.

The EFF said it “is aware” that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration “is working with the greedy capitalist establishment to undermine the power generation capacity of Eskom so that they can later sell power stations to the capitalist establishment”.

“This plan is part of the irrational power purchase agreements, which are milking Eskom of its much needed resources despite the fact that these agreements and all independent power producers (IPPs) carry no foreseeable capacity to provide adequated and dependable electricity to all South Africans,” the statement reads.

The party demanded for the Eskom board and Gordhan to immediately step down from their respective positions.

The party suggested that a team of engineers and experts, including those who previously had a hand in ending load shedding, should be appointed.

The EFF also demanded that all power purchase agreements entered into with IPPs “should be discontinued as they add no significant value” to the country’s “electricity needs”.

The party also demanded that efforts to unbundle the power utility should be halted and that Eskom should be “given to people” that would stabilise the entity.

The EFF demanded Ramaphosa “develop some courage and act against incompetence and sabotage because the people who are involved in these are doing so in his name and to benefit his private funders”.

The party claimed that the crisis at Eskom “is man-made”, repeating the claim that Gordhan and Mabuza are at the centre of this, alleging the two “are hell-bent of making Eskom dysfunctional so that it can be sold to their capitalist friends”.

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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