‘Government incapable of solving energy crisis’: Political parties react to Stage 6 load shedding

The return of load shedding on Saturday night, and then the ramping up of the rolling blackouts to Stage 6 on Sunday morning, left many South Africans venting their frustration.

Political parties got in on the act as well.

Load shedding is back!

Eskom announced that Stage 3 load shedding was back on Saturday night. In the early hours of Sunday, it then announced that it would be increased to Stage 6.

Eskom blamed unit trips at the Majuba and Medupi power stations.

It also said it had used a large amount of emergency reserves during the week.

“Additionally, to replenish emergency reserves and prepare for the week ahead, stage 6 load shedding was essential.”

ALSO READ: Eskom ramps up load shedding to stage 6 until further notice

‘Rings huge alarm bells’

The DA said the return of load shedding “rings huge alarm bells”.

It called on the government to fast-track electricity reforms and improve the economy.

Among it’s suggestions was

• Recovering the billions in municipal debt owed to Eskom;
• Fully separating Eskom’s power generation and transmission divisions; and
• Creating private sector competition by breaking Eskom’s power generation function into smaller companies for privatisation.

The EFF said it was not surprised by the rolling blackouts over the weekend.

“This government has consistently failed to provide a steady and reliable supply of electricity, proving once again that they are incapable of solving South Africa’s energy crisis,” it said.

The red berets said the weeks without load shedding were a “manufactured illusion” to create a false sense of energy stability.

It once again accused the government of using the energy crisis to create an environment that would allow for the privatisation of the electricity sector.

The MK party highlighted that only days before its member Adil Nchabeleng had raised concerns about the planned shutdown of three of Eskom’s coal-powered stations – Hendrina, Camden and Grootvlei.

Nchabeleng said the government has not yet indicated how it would replace the 4 700MW that will be lost from the grid if these power stations are closed.

“We need that clarity first before we can endorse the current plan to do with the shutdown of these power stations,” he said.

Maintenance given as reason for load shedding

Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa on Sunday said the load shedding experienced right now is because of an “aggressive” maintenance plan at Eskom.

“We are guided by the generation recovery plan, which places front-centre investments on the installed fleet, ensuring we have these machines reliable. As part of that, we had to up our maintenance. So, we had to go to levels of maintenance that have not been recorded in the recent past history,” said Ramokgopa.

He said Eskom will not back down on this aggressive maintenance as it is the only permanent solution to load shedding.

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