Kelvin Power Station a way to bypass Eskom and #KeepTheLightsOn

27 March 2019

Today, I visited the Kelvin Power Station in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni. This power station is privately owned and is currently providing electricity to some of the municipalities in Gauteng, despite Eskom’s rolling blackouts.

The current energy crisis, according to Minister Gordhan, will take up to two years to ‘fix’, despite government not having a clear picture of what the problems are, nor how to solve them. All this while our province’s businesses are being crippled, hospitals are unable to provide critical services and crime soars!

We have to take our ‘power’ back. We need to start thinking of ways of bypassing Eskom so as to make sure that the residents of this province have a reliable source of electricity.

We can no longer rely on government to keep the lights on. Eskom needs to be privatized and its monopoly broken up by allowing private power utility companies to enter the market. This effectively means that the Eskom Fat Cats will no longer be fed.

A DA government in Gauteng will leverage Joburg and Tshwane’s existing generating licenses to bring more generation capacity on board through private power suppliers. At the same time, we will work with the metros to restore decommissioned power stations to lessen the province’s dependency on Eskom.

The DA’s solution for #KeepingTheLightsOn is the only way to ensure Gauteng and its economy is no longer held to ransom by Eskom and the ANC government.

Issued by Solly Msimanga, DA Gauteng Premier Candidate, 27 March 2019