Load shedding: ‘Don’t shift the blame, take responsibility’ – Analyst slams Gordhan and ANC

The African National Congress (ANC), as the governing party, have the responsibility of making sure all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) function optimally, according to political analyst Levy Ndou.

He was responding to a statement made by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to members of Parliament (MPs) this week, that the ANC should not be blamed for the electricity crisis millions of South Africans have been enduring.

ALSO READ: ANC not to blame for Eskom load shedding – Gordhan

In a space of approximately two weeks, South Africans have been plunged into darkness, thanks to the load shedding stages which have jumped between stage 4 and 6.

Although there was hope Eskom would lower it to stage 3 before the end of this week, instead the power utility issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon saying stage 4 will remain in place until further notice.

This barely days after President Cyril Ramaphosa said in one of his weekly letters that load shedding is here to stay.

ALSO READ: ‘Load shedding is here to stay’ – Ramaphosa

Reacting to Gordhan’s remarks, Ndou said the minister and the ANC should know better because the ANC is the governing party.

“The ANC as the governing party has the responsibility of providing capacity and resources for all the SOEs, including Eskom.

Shifting responsibility

“Gordhan is trying to shift responsibility while he has the political responsibility of ensuring the effective running of Eskom and just like other ANC ministers, he represents the governing party and if things collapse, they must take the blame for that,” Ndou added.

Energy expert Tshepo Kgadima said Gordhan is central to the plethora of socioeconomic woes that have engulfed the country, saying had the ANC not installed him at the helm of National Treasury and Public Enterprise, the catastrophic failures of SOEs could have been averted.

“The ANC is squarely to blame for their obdurate failure and or refusal to decisively act against patently rogue ministers like Gordhan who wantonly violated the constitution and a whole raft of laws pertaining to macroeconomic policy, energy security and industrial policy.

“The national elections of 2024 therefore cannot come quick enough for the people of this country so that they can take the power back from what is arguably a totalitarian fascist ANC regime under Cyril Ramaphosa,” said Kgadima.

ANC dealt Eskom fatal blow

Kgadima added the ANC led government’s misguided and corrupt policies on energy in general and Eskom in particular have dealt Eskom a fatal blow through the so-called renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme, unwarranted burning of diesel at Ankerlig and Gourikwa as well as take-or-pay coal contracts at a colossal cost in excess of R80 billion a year.

Kgadima said Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile projects have been financially disastrous and must actually be abandoned instead of wasting another R100 billion plus in a doomed attempt to bring them into commission.

The construction of the newly-built Medupi and Kusile power stations started in 2007 and the plan was for them to be completed by 2014 but that never happened as planned due to a number of reasons.

In recent months, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) visited the two power stations to monitor their progress and whether the power utility was acting on their recommendations made in 2019.

Eskom announced last year that the work at Medupi had been concluded after spending R122 billion.

However, soon after that announcement, unit 4 of the power station exploded and the repair costs at the time were estimated to be around R2.3 billion.

According to Eskom, repairs on the unit are expected to be completed by August 2024.

Kusile power station’s unit one was meant to come online in 2016 with the last one in 2021.

However as of May 2016, Eskom’s website stated unit one was planned for operation by end of 2017.

In 2016, it was reported that the unit in question was planned for commercial operation in July 2018 and unit six by September of 2022.

In February 2019 Eskom reported R8 billion would be needed to fix design defects at Medupi and Kusile.

Gordhan’s office could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing this article.