News24
10 Dec 2019, 23:40 GMT+10
Unpopular decisions will have to be made to fix ailing state-owned enterprises (SOEs), said Deputy President David Mabuza who also apologised for load shedding during his address at the SACP's special national congress.
Mabuza admitted SOEs were "in a state of collapse", saying Eskom should get its house in order and take definitive measures and make plans to mitigate the growing crisis.
"With regards to Eskom, we are mindful of the challenges that are faced by Eskom. We should take this opportunity and apologise to the public for the inconvenience. We cannot allow Eskom to fail. We will do everything in our power to get Eskom right. We can try and provide every reason behind these disruptions at times risking repeating ourselves.
"Bottom line, we have power stations that are old, almost close to their lifespan. What makes it worse, if you don't have a plan how to maintain your old car you will be in trouble. Eskom leadership must be aware they have an ageing fleet and they must have a plan," he said.
Eskom implemented stage 6 load shedding for the first time on Monday evening, raising the nation's ire.
Flooding a major factor in move to stage 6 load shedding - Eskom
The struggling power utility ordered stage 6 rotational power cuts as it continued to battle capacity constraints caused by flooding and unplanned outages, including the failure of a power supply line feeding electricity conveyor belts feeding coal to silos at Medupi power station, Fin24 reported.
Stage 6 load shedding - which allows for up to 6 000MW to be shed from the national grid - ended at 22:00 on Monday when Eskom reverted to stage 4 cuts. These cuts are expected to continue until 23:00 on Tuesday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has cut short his state visit to Egypt to attend to the crisis.
Mabuza said the situation confronting the country required the party to deal with it.
Defending the appointment of Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, he said it was not just he and Ramaphosa who had made the decision, but the party's deployment committee.
He told delegates he had received criticism from the party and its alliance partners over De Ruyter's deployment.
"The recent deployment of the Eskom CEO is a case in point. This is a decision that we took in the deployment committee, all of us. People are now quiet. The only person that is being blamed is the president. The decision to deploy De Ruyter as the CEO is a decision that we took collectively.
"We stand ready to confront the weaknesses that are faced by all SOEs. The decision to put SAA under business rescue is a decision that we took, it's not a decision of the president [alone]. It is in the best interest of the workers at SAA and in the best interest of the entity not to close down.
"This is a problem that, as the government, we are prepared to face so that we restore energy security in the country," Mabuza said.
Get a daily dose of Greek Herald news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Greek Herald.
More InformationOTTAWA, Canada: With Canada Post struggling to maintain operations amid labour unrest, rivals like FedEx and UPS are stepping in to...
PARIS, France: French military and intelligence officials have accused China of orchestrating a covert campaign to damage the reputation...
HONG KONG: China has fired back at the European Union in an escalating trade dispute by imposing new restrictions on medical device...
PARIS, France: A strike by French air traffic controllers demanding improved working conditions caused significant disruptions during...
DUBAI, U.A.E.: Saudi Aramco is exploring asset sales as part of a broader push to unlock capital, with gas-fired power plants among...
PARIS, France: Fast-fashion giant Shein has been fined 40 million euros by France's antitrust authority over deceptive discount practices...
HONG KONG: China has fired back at the European Union in an escalating trade dispute by imposing new restrictions on medical device...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump is drawing praise from his core supporters after halting key arms shipments to Ukraine, a...
LONDON, U.K.: An unrelenting heatwave sweeping across Europe has pushed early summer temperatures to historic highs, triggering deadly...
The administration in Benghazi says it has declared the blocs migration chief and ministers from Greece, Malta, and Italy persona non...
New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI): The race to qualify for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 is down to four teams with just two more...
Gurugram (Haryana) [India], July 9 (ANI): Telecom Egypt on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Reliance Jio-backed...