President Cyril Ramaphosa. Image: GCIS
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected on Wednesday to chair a Cabinet meeting to discuss the country’s energy crisis, after Eskom escalated load shedding to stage 6 over the weekend, after several units at its power stations stripped.
The recent bouts of rolling blackouts have been described as the worst in the history of the beleaguered power utility.
Ramaphosa was scheduled to attend the 77th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York this week, but he was forced to cut short his international trip on Monday, after attending Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London to deal with the crippling power cuts on the economy and the lives of South Africans.
The president arrived on home soil on Tuesday morning, at Waterkloof Airforce Base in Pretoria.
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Business Day reported that Cabinet was likely to consider changes to the Eskom board when Ramaphosa meets with his ministers and members of the newly established National Energy Crisis Committee.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Tuesday said Ramaphosa had already held several meetings while abroad with Cabinet ministers on the country’s energy crisis.
“For now, the president is going to be convening meetings with concerned Public Enterprises Minister [Pravin Gordhan], Mineral Resources and Energy Minister [Gwede Mantashe], Finance Minister [Enoch Godongwana], Environment, Forest and Fisheries [Barbara Creecy] as well as the officials, including the Director General in the Presidency [Phindile Baleni] who chairs the Energy crisis committee.
“So he held one emergency meeting with them on Sunday, he’s waiting for more updates and will certainly convene more meetings upon his return,” Magwenya told Daily Maverick.
Eskom downgraded load shedding to stage 5 at midnight on Monday, and the power cuts were expected to last until further notice.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said government was working to stabilise the country’s power supply.
“We really regret the way in which our energy provision that is coming from Eskom is upsetting both our households and the economy. But this is the Eskom we inherited, this is the Eskom we’re trying to fix very hard,” he said.
Gordhan said the energy response plan announced by Ramaphosa two months ago was beginning to unfold.
On Monday, Eskom launched three power purchase programmes that will see it procuring 1 000 megawatts (MW) of power for the national grid on an expedited basis.
READ MORE: Load Shedding: ‘Mantashe must shoulder blame’ for Eskom’s woes
“We will have energy security in South Africa within the next year or so and that will improve every year thereafter. We admit that we are going through a bad patch, but we want to overcome that as soon as possible,” the minister continued.
At the same time, opposition parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have not only called for heads to roll at the ailing parastatal but also singled out Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said Mantashe must be axed.
“The second is the firing of Minister Mantashe. It is incomprehensible that he’s managed to remain in this crucial position despite these multiple failures.”
The EFF demanded that Eskom’s board of directors, including CEO Andre de Ruyter and Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer, be fired with immediate effect over the current load shedding crisis.
Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe. Additional reporting by Faizel Patel
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