If the African National Congress (ANC) has anything to do with it, South Africa may soon have a second state-owned utility to compete with Eskom’s monopoly.
The move is being seriously considered by the ANC, according to ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa, as a way to address the nation’s energy crisis.
On the third day of the SACP’s elective conference, Ramaphosa made the comments while expressing support for the ANC.
Eskom has had difficulty maintaining power, especially in recent weeks when workers started taking industrial action over wages.
The company has stated that the rolling blackouts will continue for the upcoming few weeks even though the crew has subsequently returned to work.
According to energy experts, the situation has reached a crisis point, and the government must endeavour to find a load shedding solution.
Speaking on the electricity crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that when the troubled parastatal was obliged to execute stage 6 load shedding, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe first proposed having a second power company that would compete with Eskom.
One firm taking on the duty of supplying energy to the entire country poses a big risk because Eskom has been a monopoly for over 100 years.
Ramaphosa stated that if Eskom fails, it will be a particular failure for the entire nation.
Looking at China, Ramaphosa believes Mantashe’s proposition is a good one.
It has a variety of state-owned energy companies that compete with one another to keep electricity prices down.
Load shedding will continue throughout the remainder of Friday at Stage 3.
The troubled parastatal vowed to provide more information if circumstances changed.
A total of 4500MW of capacity is not in use because of scheduled maintenance, and 16 320MW is not usable because of failures.
According to Eskom, generating units should start operating again the following week.
However, it is anticipated that power outages would persist for some time.