Gordhan slams claims of political interference at Eskom

Public Enteprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has denied claims of political interference behind Eskom’s decisions on load shedding and other operational matters.

This follows Eskom board member Busisiwe Mavuso’s bombshell remarks at a briefing to parliament this week.

Mavuso claimed that political interference was behind Eskom’s excessive reliance on the open cycle gas turbines, which used diesel and alleged that the utility needed at least eight more months of load shedding in order to alleviate the maintenance backlog.

She claimed decisions which could save the ailing utility were being blocked by Gordhan’s department.

Gordhan was quizzed yesterday about these utterances and responded with a warning.

“She has to be careful about what she says as a board member because she was part of the collective decision-making process and accounts to the shareholder, which is government,” he said.

But parliament took a more grave position, according to a statement by standing committee on appropriations chairperson Sifiso Buthelezi.

“The board raised concerns about political interference, he noted. “The committee responded by saying everyone should be allowed to do his/her job – board and management included. However, with taxpayers bailing out Eskom, there is a role for government to ensure Eskom does not fail in its mandate.”

Responding to the insinuation that Eskom’s decisions on whether to embark on rolling blackouts were politically influenced, Gordhan contended that such decisions occurred at an operational management level.

“The second thing is that any cuts in electricity has a damaging effect on the economy. Those decisions are made by the operations people who have to keep the generating plants going and the systems operator who has to get the transmission grid alive and well.”

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga suggested the dissenting board member’s remarks may be a symptom of the general perception that Gordhan was wielding an excessive amount of power.

“It is interesting that a board member wants to take on Gordhan. It appears Gordhan is running into political headwinds and there seems to be willingness to challenge his bona fides when he exercises his responsibility as minister,” Mathekga posited.

“If I can use a term to define Gordhan’s experience, I’d say he’s become a political target and this is not good for the stability of CR’s Cabinet. He is in charge of a serious portfolio where huge sums of money are spent, he is bound to run into these challenges.”

Experts at odds over load shedding theory

Energy experts weighing in on Mavuso’s load shedding theory yesterday had differing views on whether more load shedding could fix Eskom’s maintenance challenges.

EE Publishing editor Chris Yelland said it was better to embark on a long-term solution than cutting corners to avoid power cuts in the short term.

The availability of Eskom’s coal-fired fleet of power stations was currently running low at about 67% due to unplanned breakdowns.

“It is better to do proper maintenance on an ongoing basis. But this means switching off generation units to do the maintenance. If unplanned breakdowns are too high, there are some times only three choices: reduce planned maintenance, or operate the very expensive OCGTs (open cycle gas turbines), or face load shedding which costs the economy much more,” said Yelland.

“But if you cut maintenance this is only a short-term solution, because it leads to more unplanned breakdowns.”

Expert Ted Blom said other solutions besides load shedding were at their disposal.

“One suggestion is to switch off the BHP Billiton smelters for 12 months and use that capacity to engage repair teams to do all the outstanding repairs.”

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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