Statement by Zwelinzima Vavi, former General Secretary of COSATU, 14 May 2015

I am seriously concerned at the report that the “electricity war room” has asked the Treasury to develop a strategy for bringing in private players to play a greater role in power generation, including possibly selling off Eskom power stations or offering shares in the utility (see BDLive report).

This is a move towards back-door privatization of a basic public service provider. It runs the risk of repeating the huge error made in 1997, when the government was planning to privatize Eskom, and refused to make funds available for its absolutely necessary investment in new generating capacity.

That error led directly to the load-shedding crises, first in 2008, when the generating capacity was insufficient to meet demand, and now again in 2015 when theproblem has been compounded by mismanagement and possible corruption.

A terrible price is being paid by both individual consumers whose lives are being disrupted and the economy which is suffering a loss of production around R20 billion a month as a result of power cuts.

Privatisation through the back door will only make the problem even worse, as investors try to make a quick profit and prepare the way for an even worse crisis in the future. Electricity generation must be seen as a basic public service, whose sole priority is to provide the best, most efficient and affordable supply of power to the country.

Statement issued by Zwelinzima Vavi, May 14 2015