Dear Editor
In their clumsy attempt to shift the blame on the escalation of load-shedding to stage 6, the ANC’s Fikile Mbalula and the Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa failed dismally to hide the truth behind the crisis– which is that Eskom’s coal power stations are flat lining and are shutting themselves down.
The sudden drop in generation capacity, from when Ramaphosa finished delivering his discredited SONA speech to the announcement of stage 6 load-shedding a few hours later by Eskom, is a consequence of power stations that have reached their end-of-life capacity and cannot be pushed any further beyond their current limit.
Despite bringing Kusile units 1, 2, and 3 online in November 2023, the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) for the first 5 weeks of 2023 is worse than it was over the same period in 2024. This means that rather than improving – as is often claimed by ANC politicians, the performance of the coal power stations is rapidly declining, leaving them vulnerable to sudden breakdowns.
The ridiculous claim by Ramokgopa that declining output from wind and solar farms was to blame for stage 6 load-shedding should be dismissed with the contempt that it deserves. In the lead-up to stage 6 load shedding, there was a dramatic decline in coal output while solar and wind maintained steady supplies to the grid. Instead of explaining why coal power stations were shutting down by themselves, Ramokgopa thought he could cover up these failures by lying and laying the blame on renewable energy sources.
As for Mbalula, he should make himself useful for once and expose the ANC politicians who are behind the cartels destroying Eskom. Instead of pointing at imaginary saboteurs, he must reveal the politicians that are behind the criminal syndicates operating at Eskom – as exposed by the former Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter.
For a man who stood idly by while the country’s transport infrastructure was stripped to its bare bones, when he was still Transport Minister, his accusations of sabotage ring hollow.
What South Africa needs to stop the electricity crisis from deteriorating any further is to add new generation capacity as a matter of urgency. The ANC has, for the past 17 years, proven that it is incapable of solving the crisis.
We have an Electricity Minister who has failed to implement an Energy Action Plan, an Energy Minister who is fixated on fossil fuels and a President who can’t lead. Only a DA government has the governance experience to solve the electricity crisis and get South Africa working again.
Regards
Samantha Graham-Maré MP
DA Shadow Minister of Electricity
Trigger Warming
Syria: You believe two cows. They believe been fighting for as long as you remember, but it is hard to remember anyway, because you are in Sweden.
Evil Smith
There was a postman who is always contented. in the other side there is harry who would just stares at the satisfied postman everyday and asks himself \”What\’s the secret of this man\”.
One day Harry decided to pause the postman and question him why he\’s always smiling and delighted, what he did.
the postman answered:\”Whenever I\’m handing a mail to a women I kisses her and I secure more than just a kiss sometimes.\”
Harry liked the notion and went to a poste office and proposed for the job then he got it . In his first delivery Harry was so excited try the kissing thing out, and as he thought, there was a hot women in front of the first door, he went directly towared her and pasted her a kiss staight in the lips, in the middle of that her husband suddenly appeared in front him and asked:\”WTF ARE YOU DOING.\”
\”I\’m just delivering a \’kiss\’ was sent from China\” Harry answered in a sporadic tone.
\”Very nice, you came on time, I want to send a \’Fuck\’ with you to South Africa\” the husband responded while draging Harry into the house.