The Democratic Alliance claims President Cyril Ramaphosa is ill advised on the Eskom matter and wants the power utility to declare an urgent state of disaster. This comes after Eskom announced that they no longer have the budget to buy diesel to prevent the country from being plunged into complete darkness. The diesel is meant to keep open-cycle gas turbines operating during power cuts. The consequence of this crisis will be extreme levels of load shedding that the country has never experienced.
IF MUNICIPALITIES WERE PAYING
However, following an urgent board meeting between Minister of Public Enterprise Pravin Gordhan and the Eskom board , government promised to find the money to buy diesel and keep at least some of the lights on. The DA says government is refusing to acknowledge Eskom is on the brink of a collapse and that the national energy crisis committee had proven ineffective. Eskom Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer said that since the first of April, Eskom has spent R12 billion on diesel against an initial budget of R6.1 billion. This was later revised to R11.1 billion. "If we continue to burn diesel the way we have for the past seven months, the cost would be astronomical. But we do not have the cash to spend. We would be able to pay if the municipalities were paying us," said Oberholzer.
LOADSHEDDING FOR THE NEXT 10 MONTHS
Eskom provided a statistical forecast of loadshedding over the next 10 months. The forecast showed that until August 2023, SA would experience Stage 3 load shedding on most days of the month, provided that diesel was burned to make up for the shortfall. The diesel needed to keep the system at Stage 3 varied from R3 billion to more than R7 billion a month and it is possible that the country will be kept on stage four. DA Member of Parliament Ghaleb Cachalia said that if government declared a state of disaster on Eskom , it would unlock the emergency re-prioritisation of resources. "The longer government took to declare a disaster around Eskom, the closer the country would get to a total grid collapse. Gordhan must explain to South Africans why he failed to act in time to stop Eskom from running out of diesel."
