Opposition parties have questioned the circumstances surrounding the Western Cape’s power outages resulting from the Koeberg nuclear power station’s ongoing problems.
Democratic Alliance Cape Town mayoral candidate Helen Zille said on Tuesday reports of undisclosed problems at Koeberg over the weekend were liable to create serious concern among the public.
”The government must therefore immediately come clean about any unusual events that may have occurred there as a matter of urgency,” she said.
Independent Democrats mayoral candidate Simon Grindrod called for the National Nuclear Regulator to conduct an independent enquiry into the ongoing problems at Koeberg.
”There are just too many questions surrounding the timing and causes of the recent power cuts.
”For example, the public should be informed as to how a metal bolt came to be found inside a critical component of the Koeberg nuclear reactor several weeks ago,” he said.
This incident was unprecedented, resulting in Koeberg being unable to operate at capacity while new parts were being sourced.
Zille said the DA was also concerned about the city’s own role in exacerbating the current power crisis, which would worsen in the winter.
”In the first instance, the current administration has failed to keep the Athlone Power Station in working order, even though it has known for months about the shortages we will face due to a bolt left in a Koeberg reactor.”
Even though Athlone Power Station did not produce a large amount of electricity, it would at least be able to provide emergency relief to some crucial parts of the city during complete blackouts.
”The station is in fact supposed to be on standby as a back up supplier of power at all times so that the city does not get penalised by Eskom when it exceeds the basic limit of electricity that we are allowed to use.”
Zille said there had been an apparent lack of any contingency plan to deal with power outages.
”Where are the traffic police to help ease the congestion on our streets?
”And if Eskom is systematically shutting down power to certain areas while it deals with shortages, why has there been no public warning [on radio for example] to residents of these areas so that they can prepare themselves?” Zille asked.
Grindrod called on Capetonians to conserve energy in the same way they conserved water.
”The power crisis we now face is the result of over-development in Cape Town over the last two decades.
”It is clear that Eskom is facing the combined problems of ageing infrastructure and lack of a modern and efficient electricity supply network.
”The simple fact is that the irritating power cuts our citizens now suffer have been anticipated for a very long time.
”We believe that the energy mix of Cape Town should have been diversified a long time ago and, in particular, we should have made greater renewable energy options to which Cape Town is very well positioned to exploit,” Grindrod said.
On Monday, Eskom chief executive Thulani Gcabashe gave his assurance full power would be restored to the Western Cape by Wednesday at the latest. – Sapa