Eskom ‘in death spiral’ says Steenhuisen, requests meeting with president
DA leader John Steenhuisen says he has requested an urgent meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss Eskom and the power crisis.
He says rolling stage 6 blackouts pose a severe threat to the economy, and the government can no longer afford to ignore the advice of energy experts.
"Unbundle Eskom into separate transmission, distribution, and generation entities and open the market for electricity generations for private power producers. Secondly, to appoint skilled engineers to run the transmission, distribution and generation elements of Eskom and to stop all ideological and political interference.
“Thirdly, declare a ringfenced state of disaster in order to exempt Eskom from all of the obstacles to efficient spending and rapid decision making."
READ: Energy regulator ripped for granting Eskom 19% tariff hike
Steenhuisen's comments came on the same day as the announcement by national energy regulator Nersa that it has approved a 19% tariff hike for Eskom.
He says there is also a need to tighten security around the utility’s infrastructure
"To ramp out security at all key Eskom sites and deal with decisvely and harshly with saboteurs. Eskom is in a death spiral."
