Eskom denies secret deal with Zimbabwe
NORTH RIDING – South Africa is part of the SAPP where its members buy and sell electricity to each other.
On Monday they were reports of Eskom supplying electricity to Zimbabwe with 300 megawatts in an alleged secret deal. The neighbouring country has had no power supply for a long period of time.
Zimbabwe’s Energy and Power Development Ministry Permanent Secretary, Partson Mbiriri said that the country had struck a deal with Eskom to supply their country with electricity during South Africa’s off-peak periods.
Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe denied that the sale of power by Eskom to Zimbabwe is a secret, as reported by certain media houses.
” Eskom together with neighbouring African countries is part of The Southern African Power Pool, where its members sell electricity to each other when there is an urgent need of electricity supply,” said Phasiwe.
The SAPP is made up of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nambia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe and are connected through an integrated grid.
Phasiwe also added that Zimbabwe approached Eskom last year October to buy electricity from South Africa. The transaction took place towards the end of last year where they actually bought 50 megawatts.
“Part of the SAPP deal members have a maximum amount of electricity they are permitted to purchase from a country. Zimbabwe bought 50 megawatts of 300 megawatts they have access to,” said Phasiwe.
Meanwhile it may be a surprise to the public that Eskom is in the position to be supplying other countries with electricity when we have experienced load shedding at the beginning and towards the end of last year.
“We have not had any load shedding for the past four months. Last year we reduced the power shortage by borrowing from other countries. The electricity we currently use was bought from Mozambique,” said Phasiwe.
