Deputy President David Mabuza says the new Eskom Board will soon announce the future of CEO Andre de Ruyter and his Executives. Mabuza says the Board is currently completing a review of their performance.
The Deputy President has, however, pointed out that government, as a shareholder, will not interfere in the daily operations of the power utility.
The Deputy President was answering oral questions in the National Council of Provinces. He faced questions primarily on Eskom.
This, as the country is plunged into darkness daily due to load-shedding. Mabuza says the Eskom Board must act if it finds underperformance.
“Like I said the Board should evaluate the performance, why load-shedding, why these breakages, what’s happening to the maintenance of this power utility and finally take a decision. If a decision says there is underperformance, they must act, act in a way that will bring confidence and stability to the utility. So, yes, we are waiting in earnest for the Board’s evaluation that will be announced very soon and I’m sure they are also worried about the ongoing load-shedding as the new Board and they would like to end it. For them to end it they must understand what are the root causes.”
Mabuza has praised the new Board, saying it’s competent and capable.
“We should refrain as a shareholder from interfering with the daily running of the entity. Now that we have appointed a board I think we have done a good job, a board that is competent in all the skills.”
The Deputy President was also quizzed on the theft of Eskom infrastructure which leads to energy supply disruptions.
Eskom has analysed all key national key points sites and is installing smart technologies at generation power stations. helicopters and drones are utilised in isolated areas where criminal networks still target infrastructure.
Mabuza was also grilled on the 32% electricity hike requested by Eskom.
“The rising cost of electricity definitely will impact negatively on the lives of our people, impacting negatively on livelihoods and making more or else everything to be more expensive. it is a situation that we would want to correct and I’m sure we are going to stabilise the generation of electricity. In the short run, we would be able to lower the energy prices by allowing more and more generation, more players in generation creating the necessary competition not allowing Eskom as a monopoly to dictate the price,” Mabuza says.
The Deputy President also took questions on land reform. He says communities must be at the centre of deciding on communal land.
