Acting ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa says the latest round of load shedding by Eskom is an attempt to sabotage the new vision for South Africa which President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined in his State-of-the-Nation-Address last week.
“This comes a few days after the president made, bold statements during the SONA about growing the economy,” Kodwa said on the sidelines of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry Into State Capture yesterday.
Kodwa said government’s intention to unbundle Eskom, as announced by Ramaphosa in his SONA 2019, would make the struggling state-owned enterprise more profitable.
He said a number of other plans to stabilise the utility are coming.
Kodwa appeared to blame Eskom’s management for the alleged sabotage, saying either they don’t know what they are talking about or they “have been lying to the country”.
“The country has been assured of sufficient electricity. Suddenly, with very short notice, we went to Stage 4 on Monday,” said Kodwa.
Meanwhile, the organisation, Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) called on government to make bold interventions to minimise load shedding.
Eskom said it went into stage 4 load shedding after six power generating units tripped.
On Monday it implemented stage 3 load shedding and cut up to 3000MW power supply.
Ronald Chauke, Outa’s energy portfolio manager, called for the importation of international expertise and recalling retired engineers and experts who have the institutional knowledge of these power plants.