African People’s Convention (APC) leader Themba Godi says the current load-shedding and what he calls artificial shortages of coal at Eskom, are a ploy to get the power utility privatised.
Godi was reacting to the current load-shedding crisis by Eskom which is expected to last until March next year with only a break over Christmas.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan recently admitted in Parliament that some coal mines take advantage of the export market to sell coal at higher prices.
Godi says there is a bigger context to the crisis, which warrants a full investigation.
“There is a move which has now recently been confirmed by the Minister of Public Enterprises, that there are moves to break up Eskom into different components and to sell these components off. So, there is a privatisation drive… Now, we look at these supposed coal shortages and the persistent load shedding as preparatory stages – to say the State can’t manage this… It is better we give it to the private sector, so that they can run it. So the coal shortages are artificial because our country has an abundance of coal.”
