President Cyril Ramaphosa says his oversight visit to Tutuka power station in Mpumalanga was to assess its overall operational capacity. The power station has been plagued by corruption, sabotage and unit breakdowns.
The president was accompanied by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, Police Minister Bheki Cele, Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe as well as Eskom CEO, Andre De Ruyter.
Meanwhile, Eskom says the country can expect to emerge from rolling blackouts by the end of the coming week.
President Ramaphosa says the Tutuka power station can produce up to 3500 megawatts of electricity when operating at full capacity. Ramaphosa says the matter relating to the establishment of an alternative state-owned power utility to rival Eskom as proposed by Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe will be considered at a later stage.
Video| President Cyril Ramaphosa on an oversight visit to Tutuka Power Station
Ramaphosa says, “What is important here is to get megawatts on the grid, that is our focus. A whole lot of things we will attend to later. But my main focus, the minister’s focus, even the premiers focus is to put megawatts, as many of them on the grid as possible. So that for instance here at Tutuka we should get all the six units working. Right now we’ve had two operating and another one is coming on stream.”
Ramaphosa says he will address the nation in due course on the country’s electricity crisis, and possible intervention is under consideration.
“The issue that was raised by Mr Mantashe is a matter that will be given consideration; it’s a matter that is not going to be dealt with now. What we now need to do is to reposition Eskom and we make sure we generate enough energy for the country that is our main focus. Other matters will be looked at in time. An address to the nation is something that we are giving consideration to, in terms of looking at the various issues that need to be addressed,” added Ramaphosa.
Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter expects rolling blackouts to be lifted towards the end of the coming week.
Video| Eskom expected to lift rolling blackouts soon: Prof. Sampson Mamphweli
De Ruyter says, “We’ve got a couple of big units returning so that’s positive news. Towards the end of July the risk will be significantly diminished once Koeberg returns to the grid, that’s about 920 megawatts that will bring a large measure of relief. But of course to put loadshedding is additional capacity because the system at the moment is still unreliable and unpredictable.”
President @CyrilRamaphosa is spending the day visiting Eskom power plants and engaging management and employees to gain an understanding of the challenges affecting ESKOM’s generation fleet. The President is accompanied by Ministers Pravin Gordhan, @GwedeMantashe1 & Bheki Cele. pic.twitter.com/JrfRXA58MX
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 16, 2022
