The Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has asked South Africans to be patient as the ministry and Eskom work to resolve load shedding over the long term.
The minister was briefing the media on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, which was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July 2022, outlining steps to fix Eskom and end load shedding.
Following this, a National Energy Crisis Committee was established to ensure that the plan was fully implemented to achieve its objectives.
Ramokgopa said the R80 billion cash injection from National Treasury will allow Eskom to ramp up planned maintenance and rid SA of load shedding.
The ministry has already received R44bn of this money. The minister has also expressed confidence in new Eskom chief executive, Dan Marokane.
He says since May 2023, planned maintenance has ramped up from some 3 120 MW to about 7 307 MW in February this year.
Ramokgopa says: “If we had not ramped up that planned maintenance or reduced it from the current levels by anything between 25% and 50%, we would have completely eradicated load shedding at least between those periods.
“It’s important that we play that long-term game. The outside experts have told us to focus on planned maintenance.”
zolani.sinxo@inl.co.za