Scopa and Mavuso’s spat a sign of frustration with govt’s meddling at Eskom – expert

As the spat between ANC MPs serving on the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) and Eskom board member Busisiwe Mavuso continues to grab public attention, a leading energy expert on Monday described her outburst as a symptom of frustration with the government’s meddling in the running of the power utility.

Painting a picture of a bleak future, Virtual Energy and Power director Clyde Mallinson said the government’s years of interference in Eskom operations had led to the state-owned enterprise facing perpetual financial losses and inefficiency – the cause of the current rolling blackouts.

After a weekend without load shedding, Eskom on Monday warned the power system was severely constrained and urged the public to reduce consumption.

The embattled power utility said it was experiencing delays in returning units to service and the loss of multiple generation units.

It warned that further losses of generation capacity would force it to implement rolling power cuts at very short notice.

Mallinson said Eskom was hamstrung by its inability procure the spare parts needed for the maintenance of its plants.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.

ALSO READ: ‘Badge of honour’: Eskom’s Busisiwe Mavuso stands by her decision to walk out of Scopa meeting

“Eskom’s huge debt burden, including more than R36 billion of outstanding municipal debt, undermines Eskom’s ability to improve its maintenance, infrastructure build, and other operations,” Ramaphosa said.

“In short, the load shedding is the result of policy missteps and the impact of state capture over many years. This is the situation that we … are all working to fix.”

Mallinson said: “Eskom is not in charge of new procurement, with the DMRE [department of mineral resources and energy] stalling on new procurement.

“The DMRE’s so-called risk mitigation emergency programme, has been called a non-emergency, non-programme, because it was poorly designed.

“One analogy I like to use, is that you cannot capture maintenance you have missed. If you are meant to have an annual check-up with the doctor, you can’t skip five years and go five days in a row.”

Mavuso reiterated her views on Radio 702. She said she took exception to Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa giving her an ultimatum to excuse herself and telling her to behave herself like a “naughty 12-year-old schoolgirl”.

“I stand by my decision to walk out. That was disrespectful and very derogatory,” Mavuso said.

“If walking out is politics of the gutter, as he [Hlengwa] puts it, then I wear politics of the gutter as a badge of honour. I’m happy to actually be accused of exercising politics of the gutter,” she added.

Hlengwa, described Eskom troubles as being “very complex”.

“They include corruption, questionable contracts, and evergreen projects such as Medupi and Kusile. There has also been a complete lack of consequence management. Eskom issues are also historic – like failure to maintain the national grid.

“Parallel to this, has been the issue of dealing with municipal debt to Eskom,” said Hlengwa.

On the Mavuso row, he said: “First and foremost, I am not lost to the fact that I am an IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] MP and I fully agree with the sentiment that this is an ANC mess.

“But from the position of the committee and the chair, ours is to exercise oversight, which is consistent with the rules – chief issue in the SOEs [state-owned enterprises] being the deployment of ANC cadres, as emerged in the Zondo Commission.

“This is not a popularity contest but about fiduciary duty, adherence to the law – taking ownership of successes and failures.

As things stand now, we are not happy. The the buck stops with the board, the accounting authority.”