Load shedding risk will diminish substantially in next 18 months, De Ruyter tells MPs
The
Standing Committee on Public Accounts wants Eskom to reveal when will the
calamity of load shedding end.
Parliament's Scopa met with Eskom's leadership to discuss several issues, including the energy crisis, on Tuesday morning.
The committee chairperson, the IFP’s Mkhuleko Hlengwa, wanted to know when the rolling blackouts will stop.
But outgoing Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said any prediction would be a fool's game.
"There's 9200 megawatts coming online. There's a huge activity in terms of investing in new generation capacity. The risk of load shedding will substantially diminish in the next 18 months. Will it be eliminated? That will be a brave person to make that categorical statement.”
READ: Ramaphosa ‘has no business’ interfering with Eskom tariff hike
This is while Gareth Newham, who is from the Institute for Security Studies, says load shedding is an additional factor that can contribute to an increase in the crime rate.
He was speaking at a National Press Club event in Pretoria on Tuesday.
"With the aggressive approach of state capture which affected most of the leadership, our criminal justice agencies and state of security agencies, we started to see real deterioration from that point onwards on the capacity of the organisations to do their constitutional mandates.
“As a result, for example, the police's ability to solve murders. So the space for people in gangs and groups who want to use violence as a way of solving problems or asserting dominance has opened up."
