Load+Shedding+Debate,+Cedric+Gina,+NUMSA+e-mail+discussion,+and+a+response

=Load Shedding Debate=


 * Cedric Gina, NUMSA e-mail discussion**

Interesting comrades, is it really the DPE or the cabinet as a whole? When the President apologised last year, I presumed he was doing that on behalf of the Cabinet. My take is that the current political head of DPE has plans for the parastatals which might do exactly what comrade Patrick is raising. In a meeting with him last year, he said, " I am developing an act that ensure that parastatals belong to the state, they are dependent on the decision of a political head in future". I wait in anticipation for the Bill. In the US, Bill Clinton was nearly impeached for Lewinsky affair, do we have provision in our country's constitution?. Load shedding might be a reason enough for impeachment, however the political situation is still poisonous.

An interesting angle which unfortunately our media gurus forgot to deal with politically, is the fact that this indeed the state that is concerned with capital. The actions of Eskom senior management to "allay" the fears of big business without even one statement that shows that their primary mandate should be the working class communities. The failure to expose the lies by DA in particular, now they talk as if they were opposed to downsizing at Eskom, when they were calling for radical privatisation of Eskom which meant reducing workers at Eskom as one component of privatisation.

Numsa and Cosatu have not changed, friendships aren't a consideration when we represent the interest of our constituency. It is criminal that some communities who have not received electricity are asking themselves, what is this hullaballoo about load shedding because it is 13 years into democracy, they have not received electricity in their homes. This is not the end of this matter, we must campaign for refocussing of priorities by Eskom. By the way, where is Thulani Gcabashe and how many millions he got when he left Eskom? Who is the chairperson of Eskom Board, the silence of this board is deafening! The last time I knew there was a labour component in the Eskom board, which leader of the trade union movement replaced the late Mbuyi Ngwenda in the Eskom board?

=Response=


 * Nndwamato Mutshidza on YCLSA e-mail Discussion Forum**

Thulane is still at Eskom, almost heading the new Nuclear Development Programme. The same millions he was paid, he is still enjoying the benefits. Cdes Vali Moosa is still the Chairman of Eskom board. What is problematic in the current situation is that he is so silence to an extend as if he is out to destroy Jacob Maroga, because he never wanted him to take over from Thulane as he had earmarked his Crony who never impressed the Board and the Ministry of DPE was not happy for another person other than those responsible for the New Build Programme to head this organisation. Hence, Maroga appointment. It very disturbing to find that an NEC member of ANC heading such a an organisation will become deaf when things are going wrong. I fully agree, why is Vali so quiet?

On the discussion regarding why the interest of the working class and the poor is ignored? I do not think that is the case. The ANC said every citizen will have access to electricity. The issue is that, there is programme at hand to deliver such electricity to all, which the DME is championing. Look comrades, Eskom is responsible for 40% of the countries customers, especially those in rural area where Municipalities do not have the capacity to rollout the programme of electrification. The State, through the DME allocate funding to finance these rollout based on the plan approved one by Eskom Board and DME Ministry and Department. The remainder 60% of customers are the responsibilities of Local Distributors (Munics). The question of load shedding has always being built into the programme, especially during maintenance and operations of the Plants. Due to the season characteristics, Eskom has over the years do the load shedding during Summer, wherein the demand is low. The unfortunate thing is that, this year Summer has been characterised by continuous rain, impacting on the utility to off-load other plants in accordance with the plans to keep the equipments and the plants in good order.

You see, when the President went on air and apologies to the country about not providing leadership and decision on time on the new programme, he was trying to protect the same cronies. Lets me spell this well. Eskom has over the years ask for government to approve its build programme. It was approved and the dates after approval for plants availability has been shifting. In the plan which the State approved for the New Build, New Generation Capacity was supposed to be available in last Quarter of 2007 and latest being 1st Quarter of 2008. This what we know government has approved. The situation to make power available depends on market forces. What is not said on the national debate on power crisis is the impact of massive Chinese Power Development on the Turbines Market. Eskom in trying to circumvent the situation even went ahead and order second hand turbines to allow their Peaking plants to generate power due to supply chain constraints. The market has changed to such an extend that when you place an order for a turbine it will take 28 to 36 Months to manufacture it and then additional 6 weeks to ship it and then you have South African Port Authority problems on not being up to date to offload a big mass. Hence in the Cape Peaking plants they were delivered as pieces and then you get the services of the manufacturer to come and put them together.

We could talk on this matter but I felt that the Head of State was trying to calm the situation by accepting this delays. One can go further to illustrate this point, the NIRP 2, envisaged a growth of 2.2 in power demand and as such Eskom was supposed to build to cover for that and no one is looking at when was NIRP 2 sanctioned to give Eskom to build. Eskom in the past has build its plants and then come to the authority for rubber stamping. why all this fuss now by Eskom Bosses. The same NIRP 2 plan identified base load to be made available in 2010 and now Eskom has continued to shift the goal post initial to 2011 and now 2013 when Medupi will be on line and then 2016 when Bravo or Charlie come on line. I therefore do not buy this story of Eskom told us and we did not give approval on time.

When Coega Baseload Mid-merit or Combine Cycle Gas Turbine was identified based on the contract to have the Gas being Finalised. That plant will have been on line long time as it takes short time to build, if the Gas from Namibia was made available to South African Utility on a Rand currency deal as opposed to Dollar currency deal. The fact that there was something unprecedented and we were take by surprise is only to sell the information which we all wanted to hear.

As to those communities that after 13 years they have not seen light, we all feel sorry, however the question could further be asked why every year afer allocations for electrification there is a lot of money sent back to DME for reallocation? I believe and understand that there is capacity problem at DPLG and Municipalities to roll out this programme, hence the President has on number of occasions called on all of us to back to our communities and strengthen our Local Municipalities to deliver services. The other problem, which was there was the lack of Universal Access Plan, which was developed and approved by Cabinet last year to allow National Treasury to allocate Funding based on the targets set on the Plan. This plan will enable those who were not closer to be electrified to be prioritised and as we speak a back none network is been constructed to allow for connections to take place. This process is not about putting poles. as there was no infrastructure to support electrification in Apartheid regime. I feel sorry for that but every efforts is being done to ensure that noble goal is achieved. At the same time we do not need to build the network that does not respond to the growth of the communities as such strengthening of the network become part of the projects. This is done to ensure quality of electricity particularly in those rural areas, wherein you will observe a dim light always.

It is just unfortunate that all this are happening at this point in time, wherein we are heading for a world cup. The fortunate thing is that FIFA requirements for Stadia, is that they should all be supplied by a Stand-Alone Generator with a back-up from the grid. Hence, there is no noise in that circumstance. The State has procured those generators, which will be Diesel fired, the only question is to whether the looming Diesel shortage crisis forecasted for end of 2009 beginning of 2010 will not impact this plan? Maybe we should designate the Stadiums as National Key point during this period and the surrounding area. If you look at this information, you will understand the proliferation of responsibilities which the ANC has to deal with at the same time while targeting Universal Access.

As to the representativity of Numsa and Cosatu in Eskom Board, my take and understanding is that they still seat like they do on other consensus driven and competency based boards, eg. EDI Holdings Board etc. Cosatu should ask about the role of Thulane in his new position and what is that the board feel, he is capable to deliver such that they did not let him go but wanted not to renew his CEO position?

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