By Mike Smith
13th of May 2016
Apparently...according to (your) president (not mine) Jacob Zuma... South Africa will not suffer anymore load shedding
Said Msholozi Showerhead: “I always tell people that we are not going to receive load shedding anymore. I told the leadership of Eskom that I’m going to tell people that we are not going to have load shedding anymore because I was here‚" he said.
Talk about an electrifying appearance.
Nevertheless, who was responsible for the load shedding in the first place?
“Eskom has been plagued by deteriorating electricity availability from plant breakdowns since 2010 due, in large part, to a politically motivated mantra to keep the lights on at all costs. Keeping the lights on meant that planned maintenance was neglected.”
With no redundant capacity it means everything always run at full capacity and you cannot shut any part of the plant down to do planned maintenance.
Actually, according to the report above, Eskom did absolutely nothing to improve the supply of electricity. The only reason why they can cope at the moment is because the demand for electricity has dropped.
After nine years Medupi and Kusile power stations are still not finished. Medupi was going to cost R32 billion, but now is estimated to cost R154 billion. Kusile was going to cost R31 billion, but now is estimated to going to cost R118 billion.
Last year the DA laid criminal charges against the ANC after Hitachi paid US$6 million to a front company (Chancellor House) belonging to the ANC.
DA laying charges over Hitachi payment to ANC ‘front’ for Medupi, Kusile contracts
“According to the SEC’s complaint‚ filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia‚ Hitachi was aware that Chancellor House was a funding vehicle for the ANC during the bidding process‚ yet continued to partner with Chancellor House and encouraged the company to use its political influence to help obtain government contracts from Eskom.”