‘Give Eskom board time and space to do its job,’ Ramaphosa urges

President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged his cabinet to give Eskom the necessary support it needs in order for it to provide its services effectively and efficiently.

Ramaphosa who was answering questions in Parliament from MPs on Wednesday highlighted that the power utility has had 15 to 20 CEOs since 1994 and this is why it was important to let internal processes unfold to get the best results.

Change in leadership?

The EFF’s Julius Malema wanted to know whether the president has considered a change in the leadership at Eskom.

“As much as you don’t want me to talk about processes that need to be embarked upon to assess anyone’s performance, including a CEO, that performance needs to be assessed. And that assessment must be done by a properly constituted body,” said Ramaphosa.

“We need to have a proper assessment of everyone employed at Eskom, just as we need to have an assessment of the efficiency of our various power stations. That process is underway.”

Eskom’s ‘enormous’ challenges

“Eskom has gone through enormous challenges and difficulties and I’ve often said that we must give them the necessary support they need so that they can do their work. Where they fail, clearly action does need to be taken but that is a board matter.”

In September, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan announced that Mpho Makwana would take over as the new chairperson of the Eskom board.

Gordhan said the new board was approved a cabinet briefing.

NOW READ: Pravin Gordhan announces Mpho Makwana as chair of new Eskom board

Load shedding

Ramaphosa also explained that the cause of the country’s load shedding is structural and operational.

“Among the structural challenge is that there has been insufficient investment at Eskom level in new generation capacity or new generation build that was needed two decades ago and this has resulted in the end in a national capacity shortage between 4 000 and 6 000 megawatts,” he said.

“This situation was obviously made worse by the delay in building Kusile and Medupi, the faulty design that has accompanied that whole build, state capture and corruption and the loss of experienced staff.”

He said another problem was that maintenance at Eskom had completely stopped.

According him, issues that exist at operational level are caused by the structural issues.

“As a result of these challenges power stations were run very hard, to their maximum capacity with poor reliability and maintenance and neglect of midlife refurbishment.

“The newly-appointed Eskom board must be given space to assess what needs to be done to improve the efficiency of the existing plants and effectiveness at all levels.”

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