Home

Mantashe laments impact of power cuts on mining

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says the issue of leadership and skills at Eskom should be attended to in order to resolve the problem of rolling blackouts.

Eskom is currently implementing stage four blackouts and is expected to reduce to stage three at 5am on Saturday.

Mantashe was speaking during the two-day mining conference in Polokwane, Limpopo.

The conference has been attended by officials of mining companies, businesses and government.

Mantashe says power cuts have a negative impact on the mining sector as it is highly depended on electricity.

“But what we need to pay our attention today is that Eskom has 48 000 megawatts connected but it give us 26 000 megawatts so there are 20 000 megawatts which are not be commissioned and we must focus on that in order resolve the issue of load shedding. That is an issue of leadership, that is an issue of skills in Eskom.”

VIDEO | Mining Conference gets under way in Polokwane:

Ramaphosa on Eskom

Earlier during his question and answer session in the National Assembly, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that Eskom is making steady progress in developing and implementing effective technical solutions to the defects at Medupi and Kusile power stations.

“Eskom is making steady progress in developing, implementing effective technical solution to the major plant defects at both power stations, Medupi and Kusile. As a result the availability and reliability of the commissioned units and Medupi and Kusile is improving on an ongoing basis. The effective correction of the major plant defects as Medupi and Kusile will ensure that the plants achieve their contractual performance with improved reliability as well as availability factors.”

 

Author

MOST READ