South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced plans and interventions to improve power supply and generate more power to the national grid.
The president held consultations with government, stakeholders, energy experts outside government to find a collective solution to the energy crisis.
“During the past three weeks, severe load shedding has disrupted all of our lives and caused immense damage to our economy.
The daily power cuts we have been experiencing have inconvenienced millions of households and have presented huge challenges for businesses,” Ramaphosa said in a briefing late Monday.
He announced various interventions that the government has developed to respond to the crisis immediately.
Firstly, to improve the performance Eskom’s existing fleet of power stations.
Secondly, to accelerate the procurement of new generation capacity.
Thirdly, intention to massively increase private investment in generation capacity.
Fourthly, design to enable businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar.
Finally, fundamentally transforming the electricity sector and positioning it for future sustainability.
Ramaphosa said over the next 12 months, Eskom will increase its budget towards extensive maintenance of these power stations, adding that the redtape around procurement of maintenance spares and parts would be relaxed.
The long list of measures also include Eskom importing and purchasing excess power from neighbouring countries in the SADC region, hiring former plant managers who left the power utility, recruiting skilled personnel including former engineers and plant managers to drive Eskom forward, cutting red tape and buying power from private producers.
After years of state capture and mismanagement, a capable and effective management team is working hard to turn the utility around and reverse years of decay, Ramaphosa said.
However, he cautioned, as things stand, the country is still faced with an electricity shortage of up to 6,000 MW.
On Eskoms’ huge debt of R400 billion, Ramaphosa said it continues to be a huge burden on Eskom’s ability to address its many challenges.
“The National Treasury is working to finalise a sustainable solution to Eskom’s debt.The Minister of Finance will outline how government will deal with this matter in an effective manner when he presents the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in October,” he said.
The measures announced by Ramaphosa, along with the steps taken thus far, are expected to stabilise energy security in the country and to help encourage investment in South Africa and create jobs.
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