POWER CRISIS
Eskom gets tariff hike while Ramaphosa ‘deeply regrets’ Stage 6 rolling blackouts
President Cyril Ramaphosa, according to his spokesperson, acknowledges the frustration of indefinite Stage 6 load shedding and is worried about Eskom’s latest 18.65% tariff hike, but says he does not have the authority to intervene.
The South African government, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, is exploring “urgent measures that can be undertaken in order to mitigate against the impact of load shedding”, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on Thursday afternoon.
In a hybrid media briefing on the President’s public programme, Magwenya said Ramaphosa was engaged in critical meetings on the current energy crisis, some of which were scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
This comes after the country was plunged into darkness after power utility Eskom announced the implementation of Stage 6 load shedding “continually until further notice” due to severe capacity constraints on Wednesday.
Eleven Eskom generators, providing 5,084 MW of capacity, are said to have been hit by breakdowns since Tuesday morning.
Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations
The elevated level of load shedding coincided with the reopening of schools in the inland provinces of Free State, Gauteng, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
Magwenya said Ramaphosa “deeply regrets” the current energy situation.
“The president acknowledges the frustration of households, parents and learners who have commenced the school calendar year facing power shortages. The devastation to small businesses and adverse impact to the economy remains severe for SA’s recovering economy.”
The latest power crisis comes as households, businesses and municipalities scramble to reduce their dependence on Eskom by installing generators or, increasingly, solar-powered backup systems.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Dark, Dumb and Dangerous: Inside South Africa’s perfect (electrical) storm”
On 15 December last year, Ramaphosa convened a meeting of the National Energy Crisis Committee, composed of ministers and various technical workstreams, said Magwenya. At the meeting, Ramaphosa is said to have acknowledged the progress made in dealing with the energy crisis.
“He further demanded more urgency and speed in the implementation of all priority areas and actions laid out in the national energy plan,” said Magwenya.
Presidential Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya updates the country on the President Cyril Ramaphosa’s public programme on the power crisis in a hybrid media briefing at the Union Buildings, Pretoria. (Photo: Fikile Marakalla / GCIS)
In some municipalities, Stage 6 rolling blackouts mean up to 12 hours a day without electricity.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Humanitarian crisis looms in Karoo as Eskom institutes load reduction on top of rolling blackouts in defaulting municipalities”
Magwenya reiterated that the President remained committed to finding a sustainable solution to the crisis.
“Despite the current gloomy state of load shedding, the National Energy Crisis Committee workstreams have continued to make progress in several areas aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the grid and finding additional megawatts.”
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) on Thursday granted Eskom an 18.65% tariff hike to help cover its burgeoning debt. Eskom had asked for 32%. However, the utility will get a further 12.74% in April 2024.
President ‘alive to the pain’
“The president is alive to the pain of having to pay more from a consumer perspective for power that is intermittent in its availability. As we continue to drive solutions around the sustainability and reliability of the grid, we hope that pain will be alleviated.”
Magwenya said Ramaphosa would not interfere with the process around tariff hikes.
“The President cannot interfere with that process because it is a statutory process. [While] Eskom does need the money, the President is mindful of the severity of paying more for electricity they do not have.
“Having said that, we need to sustain the funding of Eskom from multiple sources, including the users, in order to enable Eskom to fund its maintenance; to fund its various programmes that are currently under way.
“There’s a balance that has to be maintained,” said Magwenya. DM
Become an Insider
The Presidency must just stop with these meaningless statements, which are aggravating when we are sitting at stage 6 loadshedding for the foreseeable future. For how many years has the President been seized with this continually worsening crisis, and nothing meaningful is getting done, and continually says plans are being developed and put in place? We need action, not sympathies. But this government is incapable of effective action.
@Eskom @civilservice the starting point is competent, capable, hard working people employed in the SOE’s and municipalities. The 25 year grotesquely bloated sheltered employment, internship programme has been a disaster. This has led to the endemic use of service providers and a, maybe even deliberate, recipe for corruption and incentivised opportunistic revenue gouging.
While it is clear that there are hard-working, competent and capable civil servants – it is the other 80% that is giving these a bad name.
That makes us feel much better Mr President. our lives are turned upside down and we are governed by load shedding times as to when we eat, sleep and enjoy (a little) of relaxation in front of the TV.
nonetheless NERSA grants Eskom an 18+% increase for a service they are not delivering! in the real world granting such an increase or even any increase when the service is not being delivered is unheard of. recommend some action Resident of making municipalities that owe eskom mega bucks start paying. hand back all the fancy cars and houses and high living of the councillors until all debt is paid and then councilors can get company bikes!
“As we continue to drive solutions around the sustainability and reliability of the grid, we hope that pain will be alleviated.” And therein lies the problem! HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY!!!!!
Also, the chief procrastinator says “he does not have the authority to intervene” WHAT??? You’re the president or is he finally acknowledging that Gwede actually does run the country?
I refrain from comment on our Presidents platitudes and responses to the Eskom crisis (and other). However, for those of us that want to become independent of Eskom and move towards being off the grid (not just to watch tv but to pump water for livestock, run our tourist lodges, small business etc), why are solar panels, inverters, generators not VAT zero rated? Excess could be fed back into the grid – or is that still not allowed!
Indeed, there should be incentives for households and businesses to become self-generating, and the grid should be upgraded so excess can be fed back into the grid. This happens in Europe and North America. But they want to keep us hostages to Eskom, while they cannot actually provide us with electricity, so they in fact discourage people from going “off grid”. It is an intolerable and extremely unfair situation- blocking other options for many customers, but destroying their businesses, livelihoods, and quality of life, and the economy is severely suffering because of the worsening implosion of Eskom.
Business associations, financial sector associations, and civil society, and the public in general, must really demand effective action now, with the removal of Minister Mantashe, urgently facilitating independent power producers and self-generation, sorting out the debt balance sheet of Eskom and putting in place a mechanism to force defaulting municipalities, departments and public entities to pay the debts that they owe to Eskhom, and to stamp out the criminality and corruption that is destroying the electricity system. We are really on the brink of collapse now.
The irony is, the more loadshedding, the less income for Eskom
Is the water boiling yet?
ANC: How to run a country by people educated up to the age of 8! The failure is no mystery!
CR is always full of regret and shocked! can he please now own up to the fact that he himself is a failure and has been since he was appointed to spearhead the Eskom turnaround in 2014! the pure fact that he does not know to this day how Eskom got in this state is a indication that he is a poor leader.
This ie the ideal opportunity to remove those ministers that are blocking the provision of additional generating and transmission capacity.
Rather give us rolling allday blackouts. So town A is off the whole Monday, B off whole Tuesday, etc. but then no outage 7AM to 7PM on your town’s on days. It is impossible to schedule production with the schedules we have now. Start 10AM because had loadshedding 8-10. Run 10-2, then stop for two hours, then run 4-8 and call it quits because off 8-midnight. Two labor shifts 8 hours of productivity…
At least, in the short term, give Eskom money for diesel, it’s much cheaper to burn that than it is to burn the economy!
I’m gatvol. Just gatvol.
If the ANC had even a milligram of honour between them, they would collectively fall on their swords by resigning immediately. All of them. Every last one of them.
Your words mean nothing, Ramaphosa. We’ve heard it all before. It’s verbal flatulence, nothing more.
The ANC has created the most disastrous economic environment which in the real world, ie the private sector would result in massive losses followed by bankruptcy and business closure, and the directors would be held accountable. But not this gangster mob, they just keep handing out platitudes and increases. This Government is the worst example of failed policy in the world. We are beyond time for change. Civil society and the business sector need to develop a joint strategy to overcome this monster.
Power failure is the great leveller… it is ruthlessly unselective in its absolute effect – and ultimately, hits all but the most affluent. And it WILL be the tipping point that topples the ANC.
The extraordinary hubris of hiking the price paid for a grossly substandard service means that the struggling, ANC-loyal, masses will now to have to choose between lighting their children’s studies and putting porridge on the table.
It is this, I firmly believe, that WILL finally bring the electoral axe down on the ANC’s political neck to slit its engorged throat… fat from gobbling down our wonderful country’s precious wealth.
It does not help our situation, but you have to admit that the ANC are providing comedian fodder for the next millennia.