Deputy President David Mabuza on Thursday convened the first meeting of Eskom’s task team at Tuynhuys, Cape Town, to deal with load-shedding and chronic power shortages in South Africa.
The task team met amid Eskom’s battle to keep the lights on due to an ongoing power generation crisis in the country.
The task team, chaired by Mabuza himself by virtue of being Leader of Government Business, was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to address Eskom’s power generation crisis as well as look at the effective implementation mechanisms of the National Emergency Response Plan.
“Today’s meeting is in recognition that swift and decisive action needs to be taken to respond to the prevailing crisis of energy supply, which is informed by challenges in Eskom,” said Mabuza.
“We thus have to urgently address the negative impact that power outages is having on the daily lives of the people and the economy. The roadmap presented by Eskom gives an indication that there is now a focused approach to how we respond to this crisis in a much more concrete manner. All relevant stakeholders must work together with speed and be focused on resolving this crisis.”
The task team includes Ministers of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo, Minister of Police Bheki Cele, the Presidency and representatives of Eskom.
(Compiled by Charles Molele)
