<\/p>\n
Political and economic analysts have described Eskom\u2019s announcement of stage 6 load shedding as a blow to the Government of National Unity (GNU) and a crisis for the economy.<\/p>\n
This was after Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa announced during a media briefing on Sunday that the country\u2019s power utility has implemented stage 6 load shedding due to the loss of four units at Camden Power Station in Mpumalanga. <\/p>\n
However, Ramokgopa vowed that the issues would be resolved by the end of the week.<\/p>\n
Detailing the sequence of events, Ramokgopa said five units tripped at Majuba on Saturday, taking about 3,000MW off line, which prompted stage 3 load shedding.<\/p>\n
He added that overnight to Sunday, four units went down at Camden Power station at about 01h30 in the morning, which resulted in the escalation of load shedding to stage 6, while over 7,000MW is off line for planned maintenance and emergency reserves are being used up and need to be replenished for the week ahead.<\/p>\n
Ramokgopa said there was no indication of sabotage.<\/p>\n
Professor Ntsikelelo Benjamin Breakfast, a political analyst and acting Director of the Center for Security, Peace and Conflict Resolution at Nelson Mandela University said the stage 6 load shedding is a blow to the GNU, because there is a minister appointed to make Eskom up to scratch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a setback on the large scale, because it means that the past is still with us and that we are not out of the woods yet. We thought that in the build-up to the elections that power outage was a thing of the past, but it looks like we were wrong. We are back to square one. What is the purpose of the minister if the job cannot be done?\u201d Breakfast said.<\/p>\n
He added that there have been many plans previously, \u201cI mean the first speech of President Cyril Ramaphosa when he addressed Parliament in 2018. He spoke about unbundling Eskom \u2014 which is about renewable energy and allowing the public to procure power from different service providers\u2014 as opposed to Eskom enjoying a monopoly. So, what has happened since then? Why are we going around in circles? I thought by now we should have covered much ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that even though previously, the ANC would have to take full responsibility for these problems, because even during the times of former president Thabo Mbeki they never invested in Eskom \u2014 now that they are in the GNU, all partners must take \u201ccollective blame for this setback.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breakfast noted that the DA has on many occasions claimed that the successes of the GNU are as a result of the DA, but they don\u2019t take responsibility for the failures.<\/p>\n
On how the load shedding will affect the GNU parties come 2026 local government elections, he said the ANC is the biggest loser in this regard, because it has a history of slow-paced service delivery.<\/p>\n
On how these setbacks reflect on the current G20 meetings that are under way, he said it sends a bad message that investors cannot rely on this country because for any business to flourish it needs water and electricity. \u201cWe still have problems with water shedding,\u201d Breakfast concluded.<\/p>\n
Economist Duma Gqubule said stage 6 load shedding is a huge crisis for the economy and it is going to have wide implications in terms of economic growth and it will also affect jobs.<\/p>\n
Gqubule said stage 6 load shedding is going to shake the national and international confidence in the economy and that the recovery of Eskom and Transnet are far from complete.<\/p>\n
He added that there has been a collapse of the public investment funds for the past 15 to 20 years, and yet the government is chasing private sector investment, which \u201cis not going to come at this stage\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has not been investing in infrastructure. They must invest in the transport and energy infrastructures. In Johannesburg, there is a huge load reduction due to infrastructure breakdown at a distributor level and they also have water infrastructure failures, which is bad for the economy,\u201d Gqubule said.<\/p>\n
He said the stage load shedding looks bad to the world leaders. \u201cWe\u2019ve just come out of the budget crisis and now we are dealing with stage 6 load shedding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramokgopa expressed regret and conveyed apologies to South Africans for the level of severity of the load shedding\u2014 which is after over 300 days of consecutive supply of electricity in an uninterrupted fashion. He said the level of anger and disappointment is well understood.<\/p>\n
He said the high levels of planned maintenance are in line with Eskom\u2019s calculated aggression in tackling maintenance. He added that the aggressive maintenance regime needs to be upheld with its risks so that the grid can become more reliable and stable. \u201cNeglecting maintenance would just lead to more trips and breakdowns, making load shedding more frequent as was the case in previous years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said that of the 10 units lost, six have been returned to service, with 3 200MW being brought back online, with two more units expected to come back on Sunday (today).<\/p>\n
\u201cAll units should be online by Tuesday, with all systems recovered by the end of the week.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cStage 6 load shedding is necessary to protect enough capacity to restore emergency reserves, which will likely be used extensively this coming week,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Marokane added that on Monday (tomorrow), Eskom will look at stepping down from stage 6.<\/p>\n
gcwalisile.khanyile@inl.co.za <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Political and economic analysts have described Eskom\u2019s announcement of stage 6 load shedding as a blow to the Government of National Unity (GNU) and a crisis for the economy. This was after Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa announced during a media briefing on Sunday that the country\u2019s power utility has implemented stage 6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[11510,16440,11516,11517,3931,2106],"class_list":["post-232939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-eskoms","tag-gnu","tag-load","tag-shedding","tag-shock","tag-stage"],"yoast_head":"\n