President Cyril Ramaphosa has refused to apportion blame after the return of load shedding – saying unforeseen circumstances resulted in renewed power cuts, despite his assurance that there would be no load shedding before January 13.
Deputy President, David Mabuza, earlier claimed that the Eskom Board and the Public Enterprise Minister, Pravin Gordhan had misled the President.
The President’s spokesperson Khusela Diko says there was no ill intention on the part of Eskom or Gordhan in this regard.
“The President had made the statement that there would be no load shedding during the Christmas period up until 13 January, and this was based on the emergency recovery plan put forward by Eskom.”
“You will remember that the system was stable during the December period. Now what has subsequently happened could not have been planned and that’s why we keep saying that there’s been no planned load shedding as Eskom had committed.”
“These are breakdowns that subsequently changed the information that had been given to the President and therefore no we don’t think that it was misleading,” Diko explains.
‘We need to be patient’
President Ramaphosa on Thursday offered new assurances that his administration is doing all it can to address the power problems in the country. He has again called for patience in the wake of the latest round of load shedding.
“When we think that we have got stability; where we will not have load shedding, something goes wrong again and again and again. So, all that I can say to you is that the challenges we are having with Eskom with the load shedding that you are all experiencing and are unhappy will soon be resolved. We need to be patient.”
