Question NW2342 to the Minister of Public Enterprises

Reply:

There are a number of factors (and therefore, government departments) that are possible contributors to ultimately, to ultimately resolving the challenge of loadshedding.

The government is working closely with Eskom to reduce the duration of loadshedding. Cabinet has acknowledged the inconvenience loadshedding has caused and National Treasury is working with Eskom to grant it the appropriate exemptions to acquire the spare parts needed for repairs and maintenance.

Government notes that Eskom is making progress in re-employing skilled personnel – including plant managers – to help the organisation make headway at individual power stations and across other operations.

In addition, government is making every effort to bring new power generation capacity online in the shortest possible time. While Cabinet is aware that the current energy challenges are frustrating and counterproductive to economic growth, it is confident that the practical actions to restructure and strengthen our electricity system will eventually improve South Africa’s energy capacity.

We are very mindful of the economic constraints and social (and political) negativity unleashed by loadshedding.

We should always be mindful of the operational and technical damage done by those involved in state capture – their priority together with insiders and businesses, was to steal, to overprice services and parts and engage in other forms of malfeaseance. The parliamentary enquiry conducted in 2017, exposed many of these shenanigans.