OPINION| Sale of SAA, Restructuring of Eskom Part Of Bigger Agenda To Collapse SOEs To Benefit ANC Cronies

IRVIN JIM|

THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has noted the announcement made by President Cyril Ramaphosa of government’s intention to amend Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act to increase the NERSA licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW.

This amendment will mean that businesses will be able to self-generate up to 100MW of their own electricity. It will exempt generation projects of up to 100 MW in size from the NERSA licensing requirement, whether or not they are connected to the grid.

This will mean Eskom’s revenue will drastically reduce even more and it will be very difficult for the entity to honour its debt obligations.

Its current financial woes will therefore only worsen. Self-generation means that Eskom’s sales and revenue will sharply decline.

What President Cyril Ramaphosa should have done, faced with the complete failure and incompetence of