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President Cyril Ramaphosa says the energy department will take responsibility for overseeing Eskom, which has been failing to meet the country’s power demand since 2008.
The change will be in line with a resolution adopted by the ANC at its national conference last week specifying that state companies operating in specific economic sectors should be overseen by the relevant government departments. That could signal a dissolution of the department of public enterprises, which oversees Eskom, logistics group Transnet and other entities.
“It is a clear mandate from conference,” Ramaphosa told reporters at a media event in Johannesburg on Monday. “The resolution will be implemented” and the government will decide how and when it will be done, he said.
Eskom, which supplies more than 90% of SA’s electricity, has been at the centre of a national energy crisis because its old and poorly maintained plants can’t generate enough power to meet demand. It subjected the country to a record 205 days of rolling blackouts in 2022, which stymied economic growth and investment.
The government has announced plans to split the nearly century-old company into three units and take over part of its debt to try to make it financially sustainable.
Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has prioritised anticorruption measures at Eskom and defended outgoing CEO Andre de Ruyter. A change in the oversight of the company may raise concern among some investors as energy minister Gwede Mantashe has been opposed to plans to transition the economy to green energy — even though Ramaphosa advocates doing so — and been a vocal critic of De Ruyter’s performance.
Several previous resolutions taken years ago by the ANC are still work in progress, and Ramaphosa warned that the party’s latest policy decisions will take time to implement.
“Things in government move very slowly, I have learned,” he said.
Bloomberg
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