With South Africa on the brink of stage 7 loadshedding, the highest level to date, energy expert Ted Blom believes that Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter should be held accountable.
Also read: Eskom announces a jump to stage 6 loadshedding
Speaking to eNCA shortly after stage 6 loadshedding was implemented at lunchtime yesterday, Blom said that unless the power utility is able to remedy the immediate situation, South Africans may face the longest regular power outages yet.
“We are on the cusp of record-breaking stage 7 load-shedding,” Blom said.
“If they don’t resolve stage 6 by tomorrow [Thursday, 8 December 2022], we will move to stage 7 because we are about to lose another thousand megawatts when they take unit 1 of Koeberg down for refurbishment of six months.”
He further laid into De Ruyter, accusing him of flip-flopping on a programme to restore the performance of Eskom’s generating fleet..“They are not sticking to their own promises of doing refurbishment, which was De Ruyter’s main claim to fame in January 2020 [shortly after his appointment],” Blom stated.
“In fact, he made a lie of his undertaking and then came out and said it was no longer cost-effective to do the refurbishment. Now he is trying again to say, ‘we need to do the refurbishment.’”
“We cannot have somebody at the helm of the organisation who keeps on vacillating on what is a critically strategic issue.”
“Current maintenance is being done on the cheap, with inferior parts, without proper planning, without proper coordination,” Blom said.
He added that the components being used were intended for cars, bicycles, and household DIY projects that could not handle the stresses in the generating units.
“We are running a spaza shop here, and I think it is high time to call on the president to answer why he keeps [failing to intervene] when it is very clear that the people who are leading Eskom are not competent to do the job.”
He said the situation was so dire that he hoped President Cyril Ramaphosa would declare a state of emergency to get “all hands on deck”.
He further predicted that if the country could not sort the situation out soon, it would see stage 8 loadshedding before 1 April 2023.
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Picture: Cape{town}Etc Library