Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly come under fire for asking Eskom to put on hold its electricity tariff hike due in April.
The president revealed over the weekend that he had asked Eskom to suspend implementing the 18.65% power tariff hike.
Speaking at the African National Congress (ANC)’s Free State conference in Mangaung on Sunday, the president talked about the negative impact the power crisis has had on the country.
“I have personally said to Eskom: ‘Eskom, it will be an injury to our people if we implement this 18% now when we are going through load shedding. Put it in suspense for a while’. And so the Eskom board is going to discuss that,” Ramaphosa said in a speech aired by SABC News.
Elaborating on what had been done to address the crisis, Ramaphosa said the government was tackling the problem on many fronts, reported News24.
ALSO READ | WATCH | ‘Put it in suspense for a while’ – Cyril Ramaphosa asks Eskom to halt the 18.65% power tariff hike
“To reduce those stages of load shedding with the various interventions that we are putting in place, the interventions that I announced in July are taking effect.
“We are now even making sure that there is sufficient diesel to power our two diesel power stations where we can get more power, more megawatts to be brought onto the system while those power stations that have been taken out for maintenance and repair are brought back one by one so that we can then have power,” the report quoted Ramaphosa as saying.
However, independent energy expert, Lungile Mashele allegedly said Ramaphosa’s remarks, if true wreaked of “political interference” and were “scandalous in terms of corporate governance norms”, reported IOL.
“We have had all types of political interference in the past and despite the Zondo (Commission) and all Justice Zondo’s recommendations, it looks like it is still continuing,” the report quoted Mashele as saying.
“It’s unheard of and there’s actually no such governance-wise… At that point the rule book should have been thrown at him, just to say you don’t do anything of the sort,” Mashele reportedly added.
Mashele said if the president had an issue with the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) decision to allow Eskom a tariff increase, he should have requested Nersa to provide him with their decision documents and then challenged that in a court of law, the report said.
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
