Page 9 - AfrElec Week 46 2021

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South African business

leaders back beseiged Eskom

management after power cuts

SOUTH AFRICA A powerful business chamber in South Africa for weeks.
has dismissed calls that state-owned power util- Managing this ageing fleet to prevent
ity Eskom’s management should step down in this devastating blackout means instituting
the face of severe power outages in the country a planned maintenance programme which
last week. involves removing units from the grid for longer
Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) periods. But unplanned breakdown was very
says it disagreed with those calling for the resig- much a reality in Eskom’s fleet.
nation of Eskom CEO André de Ruyter and The calls for Eskom’s management team to
his management team as South Africa suffered resign was initially led by the Black Business
under a devastating round of power cuts to sta- Council, which described the Eskom leadership
bilise its grid. as “completely overwhelmed, inept and out of its
The outages were suspended over the week- depth”.
end, as Eskom stabilised power supply from its The resignation call also found support
fleet of coal-fired power plants. But at the same among various labour unions, including the
time, the power utility warned that the risk of National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). But
power outages had not passed. NUM’s trade affiliation partner, the power-
BLSA, who had the weight of several of South ful Congress of South Africa Trade Unions
Africa’s most prominent businesses and busi- (COSATU) has been silent on Eskom’s
nesspeople behind it, labelled the calls foolhardy. management.
In a statement, BLSA said Eskom needed stabil- In its statement BLSA expressed concern
ity now more than ever as it tried to overcome about the negative economic and social effects
the power crisis. of load-shedding, which it attributed to “mas-
It noted that the state-owned utility had had sive underinvestment in maintenance over an
ten CEOs in ten years, creating instability that extended period of time compounded by years
“only served to make a bad situation worse”. of maladministration and outright corruption at
“We simply cannot afford to again lose Eskom during the State capture era”.
the momentum built by this leadership team “More than ZAR6bn [$387mn] was stolen
over the last 20 months, bearing in mind the from Eskom alone, according to figures before
extremely difficult circumstances they inherited the State capture commission,” BLSA said.
and under which they are operating. It also said Eskom had to add new generation
“Causing a renewed leadership crisis would capacity into the system, a shortfall that Eskom
set us further back in the challenging task of currently estimates to be between 4,000 MW and
securing the country’s power supply,” BLSA said. 6,000 MW.
At a press conference last week De Ruyter It encouraged the government to expedite the
himself dismissed calls to step down, saying sta- expansion of its renewable energy programme to
bility in management was more important than help with the shortfall.
ever in handling the current crisis. Eskom’s 8-GW renewables project pipeline,
BLSA’s vote of confidence comes as apex busi- unveiled as part of its just energy transition strat-
ness organisation Business Unity South Africa egy, should also be fast-tracked, with private sec-
(BUSA), also pointed out that De Ruyter and his tor involvement.
team were trying to manage a crisis that was not BLSA also noted that the $8.5bn financing
of their own making to their best of his ability. package secured during the recent COP26 sum-
Likewise, the Minerals Council South Africa mit would give a major fillip to this plan.
labelled the resignation calls as “unhelpful”. “BLSA supports the steps being taken by the
Eskom needs to implement the scheduled current management and its stated strategy and
outages because its ageing fleet is not providing encourages the leadership team not to deviate
adequate power for the needs of South Africa, from the focus on restoring the stability of the
and if the system were to be overloaded South grid.”™
Africa would face a total blackout that could last

Week 46 18•November•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9