STAFF REPORTER|
ESKOM implemented Stage 6 load shedding on Sunday as it continued to suffer breakdowns at its power stations.
Stage 6 load shedding took effect from 04h16 on Sunday morning, it said, after a generation unit each at Kusile and Kriel power stations tripped.
The power utility was forced to move to stage 5 load shedding on Saturday after the loss of five units.
On Sunday, the DA shadow minister of minerals and energy, Kevin Mileham, called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to return from his visit the US and UK to address the Eskom crisis.
In a statement, Mileham called for Ramaphosa’s immediate return to South Africa to address the worsening electricity crisis, saying the load shedding problem was one stage away from a total grid collapse.
“Over the past few weeks, Ramaphosa has ignored several DA warnings that his Energy Response Plan had veered off the track due to an ineffective National Electricity Crisis Committee (NECC),” Mileham said.
“Eskom’s plant performance has continued to deteriorate substantially in the past week, confirming a power plant maintenance plan that is in crisis.
“Now that it has become clear that sub-contracting the implementation of the Energy Response Plan to his NECC was a bad idea to begin with and little traction has been made, Ramaphosa should now take active control of the implementation process and ensure timely delivery of the plan’s short-term targets to plug the electricity supply gap.
“Better still, as we have repeatedly said, declare a ring-fenced state of disaster around the beleaguered entity,” Mileham said.
Mileham said Eskom’s failure to provide a reliable supply of electricity made its application to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for a 32% tariff increase “simply out of touch with reality”.
“The DA reiterates its call that Eskom should not be rewarded for keeping South Africans in the dark. Consumers must not be forced to bear the financial burden of the ANC government’s failure to address an electricity crisis that has been 15 years in the making.
“In view of the state’s patent failure to deliver on Eskom’s mandate, it is time for the private sector to be engaged with urgency,” he said.
Additional reporting by news agencies
