CAPE TOWN – The Democratic Alliance (DA) said Eskom’s return to stage 6 load shedding exposed the government’s failures once again.
Stage 6 rolling power cuts are in effect until 5am on Monday morning.
READ: Eskom intensifies load shedding to stage 6 until Monday
The utility cited a shortage of generating capacity and emergency reserves.
DA MP for Mineral Resources and Energy, Kevin Mileham, said this came as no real surprise.
“President Ramaphosa and his cabal of electricity ministers – Gordhan, Ramokgopa and Mantashe – have dropped the ball on the electricity crisis and have made no real progress in implementing solutions. Despite Minister Ramokgopa’s frequent reassurances, the energy availability factor – the percentage of generation capacity actually producing electricity – of Eskom’s generation fleet is nowhere near 70%. In fact, it has barely reached 60%.”
Mileham said the government’s Energy Action Plan to stave off the worst of load shedding was failing.
“The ANC government, in addition to being the primary cause of the electricity crisis through corruption, cadre deployment, maladministration and sheer incompetence, are equally to blame for the obstacles that are being thrown in the path of implementing real solutions.”