Deputy President Paul Mashatile sat in for his maiden questions and answer session in the National Assembly on Thursday. Mashatile said load shedding was at the top of their priority list and plans were put in place by the newly appointed Minister of Electricity to reduce or do away with loadshedding.  

TOUGH TASK AHEAD 

 Mashatile said the new minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopha, is tasked to work with the board in implementing the national plan, and in addition to this intervention is the declaration of the national state of disaster. "Another special focus of the new ministry is to work with the national treasury and respective municipalities to facilitate payments of monies owed to Eskom,' Mashatile said. Municipalities owes the struggling power utility R56. 3 billion. According to Treasury, while municipalities owe Eskom billions, they themselves are owed more than R140 billion from residents for services rendered. Mashatile said it is clear the government need a debt relief strategy that will acknowledge the inherent risk of enviable municipalities. "The relief will come with conditions to ensure there is no repeat of debt building up over time. Some of the conditions include the installation of pre-paid meters to correct the underlying behaviour of non-payment and operational practices in affected municipalities,' 

 "The government has previously adopted a plan to unbundle Eskom into three functional units to increase accountability and competencies of the various functions," Mashatile added.

NEW ENERGY MINISTRY 

 Mashatile said the Minister of Energy is on record on the decision to create another energy entity to augment the current energy supply. "During the SONA president Cyril Ramaphosa flagged the problems and outlined the interventions to unlock our national potential, this includes reducing load shedding, facilitating economic growth, job creation, and fighting poverty and inequality," said  Mashatile. He emphasised that the low levels and suspension of load shedding this week were not because of threats of the EFF national shutdown.