RESPONSE TO REPORTS THAT SACCI CALLS FOR LOAD SHEDDING TO BE RESTRICTED TO RESIDENTIAL AREAS
17 June 2015
In January SACCI asked its members to submit recommendations for improving the power situation and to address load shedding.
SACCI received a number of proposals that were classified into short, medium and long term solutions. These recommendations were:
1. Immediate (One to three weeks):
a. Allow business to operate in shifts without the need to compensate labour for work outside normal hours – some businesses to operate from 08h00 to 16h00, others 16h00 to 24h00 and others 24h00 to 08h00. This was done in China by government decree. We could consider a proclamation.
b. Introduce a three shift system at Medupi and Kusile to speed up their entry into the grid
c. Divide the country into four time zones as a temporary solution with KZN and Mpumalanga business starting and ending hour earlier than usual, moving westwards with central areas operating at normal times, and the far Western Cape and Northern Cape starting and ending an hour later than usual. This can be done voluntarily or by proclamation
d. Because of the impact that load shedding has on economic growth, keep it to residential areas (during the day) and ensure that commerce and industry can continue to operate.
e. Promulgate the ISMO Bill
f. Reassess the categorisation of the power station into A, B and C. Place priority on category A maintenance and get those power stations up to peak capacity even if it means taking out a unit to achieve this. Category B should be the next priority, and category C attended to as the lowest priority
g. Commence with implementation of the priority maintenance
h. Stick to advertised load shedding schedules
i. Convene an Electricity Summit where solutions can be discussed.
2. Medium Term (Four weeks to three months)
a. Get all industries that generate their own power to sell to the grid immediately
b. Deal with electricity theft
c. Collect outstanding debt owed to municipalities by consumers
d. Add to capacity by generating off-shore, using barges off the coast
e. Implement power generation from waste operations by private sector operators and at municipal level
f. Proceed with the implementation of the priority maintenance
3. Long Term
a. Privatise Eskom
b. Invite foreign investors to build power stations – ranging from nuclear to solar to wind generation
c. Investigate municipal funding to come up with a model that reduces the reliance on cross-subsidisation of services from income from electricity.
These proposals were submitted to the War Room and to Eskom on the understanding that it was probable that not all were viable and implementable, depending on circumstances.
One of the suggestions related to the restriction of load shedding to residential areas during the day time.
At a recent conference, the President of SACCI, Mr Vusi Khumalo, addressed delegates on the actions taken by business to address load shedding. He referred to the inputs received from SACCI members. It is unfortunate that the media chose to focus on the one of many proposals that would be difficult to implement that would potentially have unintended consequences for small and medium enterprises.
After the conference, Radio 702 carried a news report as follows:
A comment by the President of the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) Vusi Khumalo on Wednesday is that some of the biggest companies in the country have suggested to Eskom that only residential areas be cut off during load shedding to allow industry to grow the economy. Radio 702 interviewed Independent Energy Analyst, Ted Bloom, who said: “I think it's a fantastic idea and it's nice to see business apply their minds to the power crisis. And we would need a smart grid because the grid currently is integrated between domestic and industrial consumers. Households consume roughly 30% of available power, and given the daily 30 gigawatts produced by Eskom, domestic use is around 8 gigawatts.”
It is clear that Radio 702 chose to focus on potentially the most controversial recommendation, ignoring more viable suggestions. This resulted in a spill over into other media forms, causing a hype which lead to Mr Khumalo being dubbed “Mampara of the Week” by the Sunday Times.
This labelling is clearly unwarranted and a result of selective reporting.
SACCI points out that it never has been the intention to jeopardise business operations, be they small and medium enterprises located in residential areas or larger companies in industrial and commercial locations. Indeed, SACCI has as its main objective the development of business
Statement issued by Peggy Drodskie, SACCI Acting CEO, June 17 2015
