Outrage over the country’s ongoing power cuts spread among business, agricultural and political sectors on Thursday as Eskom announced that the risk for continued cuts over the weekend remained high.
”Load shedding will continue today [Thursday] until after evening peak and the possibility of load shedding remains high for the rest of the week into the weekend,” said Eskom in a statement.
Chairperson of the parliamentary minerals and energy committee Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday that Eskom needed to stick to its commitment on managing power cuts, reported South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) news.
Mthethwa said Eskom had promised that power cuts would not last more than two hours a day in one place.
Yet certain South Africans — particularly those in poorer areas like Bonteheuwel, Phillipi and Guguletu in the Western Cape — were experiencing power cuts lasting longer than this.
Mthethwa said if Eskom was experiencing difficulty in regulating and managing the power cuts, it should inform the committee.
Business Unity of South Africa (Busa) said on Thursday that the power cuts had cost businesses — particularly small-to-medium enterprises — ”millions of rand with no end in sight”.
This had led to despondency and pessimism, as well as eroding ”local and international confidence in the reliability of South Africa’s electricity supply”.
”This situation inevitably reduces the country’s global competitiveness as an investment destination, especially since it diminishes South Africa’s competitive advantage as a low-cost electricity country,” said Busa.
Reports that Eskom wanted to shelve business projects until 2013 could seriously deter economic growth in the country, said the organisation.
CEO of Busa Jerry Vilakazi said the organisation was seeking an urgent meeting with Eskom and the government to determine the extent of the problem and possible solutions.
Also on Thursday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) echoed Busa’s concerns over what impact the power cuts might have on South Africa’s future growth.
Said DA spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt: ”South Africa’s lack of reserve power capacity has now reached catastrophic proportions and if left unchecked threatens to fundamentally undermine South Africa’s future growth prospects.”
Earlier, the Freedom Front Plus’s (FF+) spokesperson, Jaco Mulder, said the business sector could even consider a tax-withholding programme as a last resort.
Western Cape minister of agriculture Cobus Dowry and the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) expressed their deep concern about the impact unscheduled power cuts were having on the agricultural sector.
Spokesperson for the ministry Alie van Jaarsveld said the power cuts affected harvesting processes as they occurred at random.
This meant farmers could not plan their activities for the day.
Farmers were having to make emergency arrangements to keep vegetables refrigerated for their fresh-produce buyers.
President of TAU South Africa Paul van der Walt said if power-cut schedules were not accurately followed, ”a real possibility exist[ed] that total yields of specific crops could be lost”.
‘Irresponsible’
Environmental NGO Earthlife Africa said Eskom should focus on getting electricity to all its citizens before supplying foreign corporations.
”Why, if Eskom can’t supply electricity to the citizens of this country, is it offering foreign companies large amounts of power at reduced tariffs? Must individuals and small businesses suffer so that large industries can be assured profit,” said energy policy officer Tristen Taylor.
”It would be irresponsible to supply the Canadian multinational corporation Alcan before supplying electricity to the citizens and voters of this country.”
On Thursday, trade union Solidarity said it had obtained information hat Eskom was exporting 3 000MW of electricity to neighbouring countries.
”This almost equals the entire output of one South African power station.”
”If it were not for these exports, South Africa would have had ample electricity supplies for its own needs,” said Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans.
Kleynhans said the union would also like Eskom to respond to an allegation that Zimbabwe did not pay for the electricity supplied to it.
On Wednesday, Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana sent a letter to Eskom saying he was considering investigating the power cuts because they were having a devastating effect on service delivery by government.
Public Protector communications manager Eric Buyiselo said on Thursday that Eskom had replied, promising to provide an explanation by the end of the week.
He said the Public Protector would give the utility a chance to respond.
In the meantime, the Public Protector was receiving complaints from various organisations and individuals.
Buyiselo said he could not speculate on how Eskom might explain the power cuts or what further action could be taken.
”We ‘d like to hear from them before taking action.
”I’m sure they would want to explain a thing or two,” he said.
FF+ minerals and energy spokesperson Willie Spies said on Thursday that the Public Protector’s investigation of Eskom’s power cuts should be broadened to investigate how municipalities and national government have handled the power crisis.
He said he had received complaints that extended power cuts were taking place outside the time frames of the scheduled rolling cuts.
”The FF+ is convinced that the current power crisis is only partially being caused by Eskom but that the critical skills shortages at municipalities is a multiplying factor in this crisis.”
On Thursday, Solidarity said it handed two reports about problems at Eskom to the Public Protector.
”Solidarity maintains that the electricity-supply crisis results from a shortage of skilled workers at the company, caused by the large-scale departure of skilled people from Eskom and a lack of proper training in scarce skills.
”The problem is exacerbated by inadequate maintenance at Eskom power stations,” said Kleynhans.
Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger was unavailable for comment on Thursday.
Load-shedding schedules are available on www.eskom.co.za, through municipality websites or through the Eskom call centre at 08600 37566. — Sapa