The Public Protector is considering investigating Eskom’s power failures, which have recently left many parts of South Africa without electricity for hours at a time due to load-shedding.
Lawrence Mushwana asks several difficult questions in a letter sent to Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga on Wednesday.
“We have noted with concern that the current load-shedding practice by Eskom is having a devastating impact on, inter alia, service delivery by government entities, is causing serious prejudice to the private sector, and negatively affects the lives of many of the people of South Africa on a daily basis,” Mushwana says in the letter.
He asks Moraga for detailed information on the power cuts, measures Eskom has put in place to prevent cuts and what it has done to tackle underlying reasons for the cuts.
Mushwana also wants to know what steps Eskom intends taking to compensate those who have suffered damages or inconvenience as a result of the power cuts.
He further asks Eskom what steps it has taken to ensure that emergency centres, such as hospitals and police stations, are not affected by the power cuts and what it has done to prevent traffic accidents as a result of traffic lights not working.
Buyiselo Eric Ndiyane, communications manager at the Office of the Public Protector, said the letter was sent to Eskom on Wednesday and the protector will wait for the utility’s answers before deciding whether to proceed with an investigation.
Eskom said on Wednesday that load shedding would continue until after the evening peak, and this pattern would remain for the rest of the week.
It has received expressions of concern about the user- friendliness and effectiveness of the current system used to publish load-shedding schedules. Based on this input and its assessment of available technology, Eskom said it is revising its system fundamentally.
The intention is to have a system that will integrate seamlessly with municipalities, and give detailed geographical and regional information about the network, given that most of the electricity boundaries are not the same as the municipal or residential boundaries.
Implementation is expected in the first quarter of 2008.
Need to expand
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s (IFP) Eric Lucas and Liezl van der Merwe said on Wednesday that there is a desperate and urgent need for Eskom to expand, due to South Africa’s booming economy that has seen the demand for electricity grow faster than the government had anticipated.
“Firstly, the IFP is concerned with the fact that Eskom is to ask government for money to help fund its capital expansion programme and avoid a ratings downgrade, which would translate into higher costs for consumers,” they said in a statement.
“Secondly, we know that France and the UK have been invited to tender for the building of new PBMR [pebble-bed modular reactor] plants. But the IFP can’t help but wonder: Where will Eskom get the money from if an international tender is accepted?
Normal practice for any business “would be to check the business climate, formulate a business plan and then to build and expand its service. But now Eskom expects consumers to pay first, without receiving any benefits. And these are the fundamental concerns of all South Africans.”
The IFP questioned performances bonuses paid out to Eskom management as well as electricity supplied to other Southern African countries.
“Providing neighbouring countries with electricity, when we have power shortages ourselves, places massive strain on our electricity grid and the IFP is not sure what benefits, if any, this practice holds for South Africa,” Lucas and Van der Merwe said.
They added: “Furthermore, consumers are now expected to foot the bill for Eskom’s R150-billion infrastructure expansion programme by paying 14% more for their electricity. South African consumers are already financially over-burdened with high fuel prices, the high inflation rate and higher food prices. Then, on top of all of this, to expect South Africans to pay so much more for their electricity is unfair.”
The IFP suggested that Eskom rethink its current expansion plan and consider looking at other models to attract outside investment into the company. It should also encourage solar panels for heating water.
Another partial solution for the electricity crisis would be to consider a daylight-savings system. “By splitting the country into two time zones, possibly one hour apart, we would have two different peak periods in the morning and two different peak periods in the evening. This could help to significantly spread the country’s electricity demand and could lead to less load-shedding and hopefully fewer blackouts.”