DA calls for handover of Kusile and Medupi operations to original equipment manufacturers
12 March 2024
The DA rejects outright claims made by Eskom executives, after an evaluation of poor performance at the country's 14 coal-fired power stations, that the findings made by experts in the VGBE/Treasury report are wrong and inaccurate.
If anything, the blame for plant dysfunctionality lies with Eskom itself after it sat idly by while the performance of coal power stations rapidly deteriorated, loadshedding progressively became worse and the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) continued with its downward spiral.
The DA is now calling on the Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, to initiate a process to hand over operations for the Kusile and Medupi power stations to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). This follows findings made in the VGBE/Treasury report that Kusile’s Unit 4, which is operated by the OEM, is the power station’s best-performing unit, with an Energy Availability Factor (EAF) of 90%.
The country’s economy and people’s livelihoods cannot be held to ransom – through incessant loadshedding, by what is clearly Eskom’s inability to improve the performance of units under its management at both Kusile and Medupi.