DA wants Eskom to be declared a State of Disaster

By Larry John Brown

Published: April 18, 2022 | 3:17 PM GMT

The DA said now that 17GW of unplanned outages and a further 5GW offline for planned maintenance has been announced – amounting to a third of Eskom generation capacity – the country is in a state of disaster, driven by Eskom’s ongoing failures.

DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, Ghaleb Cachalia said Eskom has proved beyond any doubt that it is not able to solve South Africa’s 14-year-old load shedding crisis.

The entity’s old generation fleet is on life support and is constantly tripping, resulting in power outages being announced at short and debilitating notice.

“The dire situation in KwaZulu-Natal is being compounded by electricity supply issues which affect the ability, inter alia, to pump much needed water supplies.

“People are dying, businesses will die, ports are closed and the country will grind to a halt.”

Ghaleb Cachalia

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha attributed the latest bouts of load shedding to breakdowns at some of its power stations.

Mantshantsha also said that the implementations are always the last resort to protect the grid.

“The loss of four additional generation units at Matla, Tutuka, Duvha and Arnot power stations over the past 24 hours, exacerbated by the delay in units returning to service at Camden, Matla, Grootvlei and Tutuka power stations, has unfortunately necessitated the implementation of loadshedding.

“The power system continues to be fragile and Eskom is forced to implement load shedding to manage and replenish emergency generation reserves, on which it has been relying to supply electricity this week.”

Eskom

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About Larry John Brown

Larry John is a talented writer and journalist based in New York, USA. He is a valued contributor to TDPel Media, where he creates engaging and informative content for readers. Larry has a keen interest in current events, business, and technology, and he enjoys exploring these topics in-depth to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of the issues. His writing style is characterized by its clarity, precision, and attention to detail, which make his articles a pleasure to read. Larry’s passion for storytelling has earned him a reputation as a skilled writer and a respected authority in his field.