Eskom CEO admits load shedding causes hardships on SA and economy

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter says he recognises that load shedding causes hardship to the country and economy. He also warned that the utility will post a substantial net after-tax loss at its next financial results.

De Ruyter was hosted by the free market foundation on its podcast to discuss Eskom’s current state of affairs.

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Blackouts

He says some power stations are old and unreliable and the power utility has to launch a reliability maintenance recovery programme. The programme is intended to catch up on the backlog of maintenance.

De Ruyter says once the programme is complete, the risk of load shedding will decrease but not entirely eliminate the blackouts.

He further admits that the power utility’s income statement is still under pressure, warning that the profit reported in the first half of the financial year will not be sustained.

Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter discusses utility’s current state of affairs:

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Power outage in Soweto 

Meanwhile, residents of Soweto will not have electricity for a while as Eskom is still attending to the damage a fire has caused to a sub-station. The power utility says the fire incident happened on Sunday night, but it will take longer than expected to restore power.

Areas that have been in the dark since Sunday night include, Chiawelo, Dlamini, Pimville and White City.

Eskom’s Gauteng spokesperson, Reneiloe Semenya, says they are attending to the outage.

“We are attending to an outage affecting parts of Chiawelo, CWJ, Dlamini, Jabavu, Mofolo, Molapo, Moroka, Phiri, Pimville, Senaone and White City following a fire incident at one of our substation last night.”

Eskom says there’s a high risk of load shedding until at least September:

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