Ramokgopa: Country’s power grid remains unreliable

Ramokgopa: Country’s power grid remains unreliable

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has warned that the current respite in load shedding will not become a permanent feature of life in South Africa. 

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa
GCIS

Ramokgopa says the country's power grid remains unreliable due to years of underinvestment in planned maintenance.

 

"We do accept that given the fact that the majority of these units still remain unreliable. Of course, we are addressing that through planned maintenance. "

 

"The key measure there is that, when the units come back from planned maintenance, we should not have repeat maintenance, and if you had to do an account of what the team has been doing, you will see that they've reduced on repeat failures."   

ALSO READ: Year in Review: That time an Eskom worker shared some behind-the-scenes footage

Addressing a media briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday, the minister said South Africans will continue to experience periods of rolling blackouts followed by no load shedding. 

 

He said while there might be room for improvement as more power plants come back online, the blackouts will remain a reality.

 

"So, if someone were to ask me what is the outlook, we did make the point that the system remains unreliable. We are working on these units, so I can't stand here and say to the country now there won't be any load shedding going into the future." 

MORE ON ECR


newswatch new banner 1

Show's Stories