Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa stated on Monday that Eskom is not burning more diesel to ensure there is no load shedding as the country approaches the elections this month.
South Africa has experienced 40 consecutive days without load shedding. This has been the longest time that the country has gone without blackouts in three years.
During a media briefing, the minister said that Eskom’s engineering team has made sure that South Africa’s plants are performing better.
Ramokgopa praised the Energy Action Plan and Eskom’s leadership throughout the briefing, attempting to counter the myth that Eskom was under political pressure by the ruling party to keep the lights on to impact the elections in favor of the ANC.
The elections will take place on May 29.
The minister emphasised that it would be completely disrespectful to attempt to call Eskom’s chairperson, Mteto Nyati, and ask him to keep the lights on solely to enhance the image of the ANC.
Ramokgopa said that Nyati would never do such an act and he would never make that call.
The minister emphasised that Eskom’s CEO, Dan Marokane and group executive for generation, Bheki Nxumalo would never do anything to jeopardise the state utility’s engineering units.
Furthermore, he said that Eskom’s leadership would never endanger the the lives of men and women at Eskom for an election.
The tide has turned
Last week, Ramokgopa said that the tide has turned in terms of the energy crisis and the end of load shedding was now in sight.
Ramokgopa said that Eskom’s achievement of an Energy Availability Factor (EAF) of 65.5%, last attained in 2021, confirmed the success of the aggressive maintenance-led recovery strategy, despite its inherent risks.
“We have indeed turned the corner, the ending of load shedding is within touching distance,” he added.
The minister said that government has reached a significant milestone in putting an end to load shedding and resolving the energy deficit affecting the state.
“This milestone validates the viability of the Eskom fleet of generation units and signifies the most efficient path to ending load shedding,” Ramokgopa said.
Nyati also praised the EAF percentage and added that the board has set higher targets in the coming year.
The board has set an EAF target of 70% for April 2025, Nyati said on X.
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