Panic stations by Ramokgopa and the Eskom board after DA calls for honesty on loadshedding
23 April 2024
The panicked response by the Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, and the Eskom Board Chair, Mteto Nyati, to the opinion piece by DA Leader John Steenhuisen – in which the DA called for honesty on loadshedding suspension, created much confusion and left many questions unanswered.
For starters, both Ramokgopa and Nyati did not dispute the DA’s assertion that Eskom was still using Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) to augment generation capacity. What they failed to do was provide clarity on the amount of diesel that Eskom had burned since the 31st of March, when Eskom’s 2023/2024 financial year ended, and the amount spent in procuring this diesel.
In his own words, Nyati admitted that the Eskom budget for the 2024/2025 financial year is yet to be approved. With Eskom already burning diesel through the OCGTs, the question that arises is whether Eskom is using out of budget diesel procurement to keep the OCGTs running and generation capacity up?
Ramokgopa did not help the situation either with his contradictory statements that sounded more of a political campaign statement than a considered system performance overview. He made the boisterous claim that ‘Eskom has turned the corner’ but at the same time warned that “…loadshedding is not behind us”. It is these contradicting positions that render Ramokgopa dishonest and not to be trusted on anything relating to loadshedding.