THE BUSINESS sector has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to tackle the energy crisis more decisively in his State of the Nation Address (Sona).
The South African United Business Confederation (Saubc) said the energy sector should be given urgent attention without delay.
This comes as Eskom yesterday further threatened the stability of South Africa’s economic recovery as it implemented Stage 2 load shedding to conserve and replenish emergency reserves.
The first batch of South Africa’s activity data for 2022 indicated that the economy started the year on a solid footing.
The power utility said that further breakdowns could force Eskom to implement load shedding sooner or to extend the load shedding beyond Tuesday morning.
Saubc president George Sebulela said the continuous electricity supply interruptions remained a major concern for the economy.
“Eskom must perform the maintenance required to improve supply reliability, as load shedding continues to cripple businesses and consumers.
“The government must implement measures to radically shift the trajectory of electricity generation in our country.
“Eskom should restore its operational skills while cutting waste and unnecessary expenditure.”
Eskom said load shedding had become necessary after it lost the unit each at Camden, Kusile, Duvha and Matla power stations while the return of a unit at Kusile and two units at Majuba power stations were delayed.
Total breakdowns amounted to 16 261MW while planned maintenance is 5 350MW of capacity as we continue with the reliability maintenance.
Sebulela said a rapid and substantial increase in generation capacity from the private sector was essential beyond filling the 2 000MW supply gap identified to bolster Eskom’s output.
“Since President Ramaphosa announced the emergency power procurement programme in his fourth Sona in February 2020, not a single extra megawatt of electricity has been added to the grid,” he said.
“We have moved from the Covid emergency to the energy emergency and it must be tackled as such, in a whole of society approach.”
EY Africa chief executive Ajen Sita concurred that South Africa needed to“radically and rapidly” get the economy working again.
Sita said while there have been recent concessions by the government to allow private electricity generation, there had also been mixed messages.
“For example, many citizens and businesses have moved to become more energy independent by installing solar power,” Sita said.
“But under Eskom’s new proposed plans for electricity tariffs, this would lead to solar panel users paying more than before, as they would need to pay daily fixed costs to Eskom to be connected to the grid even if they are using their own power.”
In a note, the Bureau for Economic Research said the continuation of power cuts was a serious risk for South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“As outlined in the summary of our recent forecast update, load-shedding is expected to remain a feature of the SA economic landscape in the foreseeable future,” it said.
“This poses a major downside risk to the country’s real GDP growth outlook.”
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE