It comes at no surprise that – once Gwede Mantashe – NEC _spiritus rector_ and now Top Honcho of the Department of Energy has taken the reins over this crucial infrastructure ministry – load shedding will be back. What does he know about electricity? What does he care as long as he keeps the NEC together to condone corruption and nepotism in “his” sectors of mineral resources and power? He doesn’t, as long as the state coffers are accessible for plunder by his goons and as long as he personally has diesel in his generator and solar PV on the roof.
The reality keeps up with this as stage 2 load shedding will take place from 9am to 11pm on Wednesday 16 October 2019, and is expected to last for at least a week. Eskom’s official Twitter account has alerted the public that load shedding has returned.
Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 9am to 11pm on Wednesday due to a “shortage of capacity”, the struggling energy utility confirmed. It has since been indicated that the blackouts are expected to last at least a week.
A statement has since been released by Eskom, stating that the rolling blackouts aim to “protect the power system from a total collapse”, and are as a result of the electricity system becoming “severely constrained” due to the “loss of additional generation, delays in the return to service of units that are on planned maintenance and limited diesel supply”.
In Summary: ESKOM’s anewed failure to plan properly and the lack of management of maintenance and supplies has the country suffering once again. When will this epic failure of a state-owned company finally split up and given into hands of operators, who actually know what they are doing? When will the position of minister in the Department of Energy be given to a responsible servant of the public?
Well…hell might have been frozen over before this is gonna happen.