Eskom’s monopoly plunging SA into load shedding – DA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has said that state-owned enterprise (SOE) power utility Eskom’s monopoly in the country’s energy sector is to blame for the resurgence of load shedding.

The SOE warned on Friday that load shedding cannot be ruled out this December, thanks to dwindling coal stockpiles.

On Sunday, Eskom was forced to implement emergency stage one load shedding following the revelation that five of its coal power stations have less than 10 days of coal supply left.

The DA’s Natasha Mazzone said in a statement on Monday: “These outages are proof that South Africa desperately needs a long-term solution to reshape the entire energy sector.”

Mazzone said Eskom is in “complete crisis mode” and that the power utility was considering to spend R1 billion on diesel over the next four months “to fill the gap and keep the lights on”, adding that this was unsustainable.

“South Africa cannot afford to be plunged into darkness yet again. Load shedding is not only an inconvenience for citizens, but it also has serious consequences for the economy.

“Clearly, there is a complete lack of long-term planning and strategy at the utility. Eskom needs a firm plan of action to make it more efficient and productive.”

She said this was why the DA had introduced its proposed Independent System and Market Operator (ISMO) bill which will see Eskom split into two entities, a transmission/grid entity, and a generating entity.

“The generating entity will then compete with other power producers on an equal footing, with price and efficiency being the main determinants of delivering power to the national electricity grid.

“Eskom’s monopolistic stranglehold of power delivery to the economy must be broken. This is the only way we can free up the energy space to competition, stability, and reliability.”

She said Eskom should also reduce employment expenses “especially considering its bloated workforce”.

“South Africans can no longer bear the brunt of the ANC’s failures. The government’s mismanagement of Eskom has turned the once world-class power utility into a stagnant public entity, eating away at the public purse.”

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