African People’s Convention (APC) leader Themba Godi has called for the dismissal of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan over the collapse of South Africa’s power supply.
Godi said there was a clandestine plan to destroy Eskom and reduce it to a power purchasing entity instead of a power generating and supply entity. Godi said Gordhan and President Cyril Ramaphosa were playing Russian roulette with the economy of South Africa.
Godi said it was not a surprise that Eskom was unable to give proper explanations about the current state of affairs at the power utility.
He accused companies which were contracted to do business at Eskom of doing poor maintenance work. This was part of a collusion to destroy Eskom.
“The plan to destroy Eskom is in full swing. They are destroying the power-generating capacity of Eskom. You can even see the proposal of Eskom lays out a plan of procuring additional power from private producers,” Godi said.
Godi said many of the companies that were responsible for maintenance at Eskom were former employers who were desperate to keep their contracts.
“On the one hand, there is the interest of the outsourced former employees. The poor quality maintenance work that is done serves a bigger purpose because they see Eskom as a dead horse,” Godi said.
Godi said the pivotal inclusion of the private sector at Eskom would affect the poor in a bad way. He said Eskom could potentially lose its social function as a state company.
“The simple fact is that with IPPs, we are not guaranteed a stable and affordable supply of electricity. We will see a spiralling increase in the cost of electricity. Power will no longer be a social right of all South Africans.” Godi said.
Adding his views on the debate about coal and renewable energy, Godi said it was unfair for the west to keep shoving the idea of renewable energy down the throats of developing countries whole they developed their own economies using coal.
“Why should South Africa be the pioneer of this? The drive for renewable turned into a drive for renewables has been turned into a Ne- colonial tool of control and de-industrialisation. These European countries are the ones buying the coal from us,” Godi said.