Eskom board chairperson Mpho Makwana said that those who wanted to generate power and add to the constrained grid no longer had regulatory obstacles and were welcome to actively participate.
Eskom board chairperson Mpho Makwana said that it was not up to Eskom alone to add new generation capacity to the grid to help end power cuts.
He said that those who wanted to generate power and add to the constrained grid no longer had regulatory obstacles and were welcome to actively participate.
Makwana also told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that Eskom would explore all possibilities on the request to suspend the pending 18.65% tariff increase.
Makwana and CEO, Andre de Ruyter, briefed Scopa on Tuesday on the issues affecting the entity.
The Eskom board chairperson acknowledged that Eskom was struggling to generate enough power to keep the lights on, but said that there was a lot of progress in fixing the system.
He said that they found Eskom with both liquidity and technical constraints, with some outside of Eskom’s control.
But Makwana said that adding new generation to help end power cuts was not just up to Eskom.
“Someone must come and add more megawatts while Eskom continues to deal with this question that we are being asked. So when we say it’s not entirely up to Eskom, it is not entirely up to Eskom to add new megawatts.”
De Ruyter was blunt in his assessment, laying a lot of the blame on his predecessors.
“In 2014, my somewhat less than illustrious predecessors refused to sign power purchase agreements with IPPs,” De Ruyter said.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) also briefed Scopa, with head Andy Mothibi calling those implicated in corruption to be held accountable.
By: Babalo Ndenze
For more information visit: ewn.co.za
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