Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has accused Eskom of “actively agitating for the overthrow of the state” as it continues to implement load shedding, which reached Stage 6 this week as power plants suffered breakdowns.
At a signing ceremony for 13 new independent power projects on Thursday, Mantashe said load reduction was becoming worse than state capture because of how it directly affects citizens and affects the economy.
“Eskom, by not attending the cargo shedding, is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state,” Mantashe said in Johannesburg.
The minister said that Eskom simply had to solve its operational problems. In his opinion, six months of focused maintenance should be enough time to address the issue.
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has repeatedly said that corruption, mismanagement and a lack of planning and maintenance have brought the power company to this point.
Excluding the recently built but deeply flawed Medupi and Kusile stations, South Africa’s power plants are on average more than 40 years old.
Maintenance on these plants has been postponed for years, with some delays dating back to 2013, leaving the plants severely weakened.
Sabotage and coal theft by a criminal network are also contributing to the cargo shedding, De Ruyter stressed.
READ | SA’s sun and wind, unlike Eskom’s coal, cannot be stolen by ‘sophisticated’ criminals, says De Ruyter
Mantashe said the energy crisis had inhibited growth in key economic industries such as mining.
With the signing of the 13 new sustainable energy projects, Mantashe said an additional 6,800MW of power has been added to the grid during his tenure as mining and energy minister.
On the sidelines of the event, Mantashe reiterated that Eskom’s management had to fix operational problems or resign.
He said he would welcome the utility, which currently falls under the Department of Public Companies, back into his portfolio.
READ | De Ruyter ‘policeman’ won’t fix Eskom’s problems – Mantashe
Mantashe has launched repeated attacks on De Ruyter in recent months and previously told News24 that De Ruyter should be replaced by someone with technical skills. He said the Eskom CEO was like a “policeman” focused on going after criminals.
De Ruyter said last month that the arrests of suspected thieves were made by private security firms employed by Eskom, not SAPS.
“We have to do our own investigations, we have to apprehend the suspects and we finally hand them over because we have no law enforcement powers.
“But there is a clear challenge in Mpumalanga province with organized crime. Pretending it’s just a few isolated incidents is not supported by the facts. It all links up in quite sophisticated networks that steal billions of rand from Eskom every year. “.
