THE Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramakgopa, has dismissed claims that corruption at Eskom contributed to load shedding.
He said this on Tuesday, 21 March, while visiting Kusile Power station in Mpumalanga.
Ramakgopa is on a 10-day tour of all power stations to engage with management, workers and unions.
He has since visited Kriel, Duvha, Kusile and Kendal power stations. He will end his Mpumalanga tour at Tutuka power station on Wednesday, 22 March.
He told the media that the challenges faced by Eskom have nothing to do with corruption but technical problems.
"It has nothing to do with corruption but has to do with technical designs, which we are correcting so that they don't get to recur going into the future," he said.
Ramakgopa said they are not anticipating a higher stage of load shedding.
"I am here at the power station, I don't make these statements somewhere in Pretoria. I have engaged with management and technical people at the three power stations. We are still suffering from five of the six units that are out.
"I am sufficiently satisfied with the design modifications that they are proposing and also the temporary stacks on the back of the approval exemption by the minister of environment," he added.
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Ramakgopa said they are going to realize all of the 2060 Megawatts.
He further said Kusile Power Station has been their problem child.
From these discussions, we are confident that four of the five units will be streamed by December this year and February next year. If we don't get extreme winter, I don't think we will go beyond the higher stages of load shedding.
"The kind of performance that we are seeing is a result of low demand, and that's why we are not seeing stages of load shedding. People need to appreciate that because no one switches on and off the switch. Our intention is to have the lights on all the time as in when our people need it, but of course, there are technical constraints which we are resolving, "he said.
