Good morning. Yet another breakdown at Eskom saw the power utility switch to Stage 3 load-shedding on Wednesday afternoon until further notice.
Eskom says two generating units have broken down while there is a delay in returning three generating units back to service following scheduled maintenance.
Dire consequences for SA if Eskom does not clean up its act
“Fraud, corruption, sabotage and other criminal conduct have taken root within Eskom and, unless we take decisive action to eradicate this type of conduct, it will continue to fester and see the downfall of Eskom with catastrophic impacts to South Africa.”
That is the warning from Eskom’s own annual report, which it released last month. Outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said at the time that South Africa will become “ungovernable” if the “criminal syndicates” within Eskom are not eradicated.
Eskom has started to tackle sabotage
To clean up the criminal elements within Eskom, the power utility recently beefed-up security measures while the South African National Defence Force has been deployed to multiple power stations.
The power utility is vetting contractors at its facilities after allegations that Eskom employees colluded with contractors to deliberately sabotage its power plants so that they can do the repair work and have their contracts extended.
Moving away from Eskom
Meanwhile, Johannesburg’s City Power and the provincial government of the Western Cape are exploring alternatives to move away from Eskom.
Western Cape premier Alan Winde said his government was looking into ways private businesses can help the province to become more resilient against load-shedding. Winde said there needed to be more investment into alternatives.
City Power said it would become less reliant on Eskom this year and search for alternative energy power producers. The power utility said partnering with Eskom had become too costly since it began losing R3.6 million every day due to load shedding.
What’s happening in the markets?
The Asian markets are currently trading higher while the US market closed positively overnight with the S&P 500 adding 0.75% amid more hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve. Europe also followed the trend at the close yesterday.
The JSE closed 0.18% higher on Wednesday and in the currency markets, at 06:45 the rand was trading flat at R16.94 against the dollar.
Here’s what else you need to know:
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