The DA has submitted a Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) application to National Treasury to request a copy of a report on the state of Eskom’s 14 coal-fired power stations conducted by German consortium VGBE Energy.
This comes after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced during his budget speech in February that Treasury would be commissioning an independent assessment of the operations of Eskom’s coal fleet and that the Eskom Debt Relief strategy would be contingent on the implementation of the recommendations of the study.
Treasury appointed the company, VGBE Energy, to fully evaluate the coal-fired power plants to ascertain which can be restored to original equipment manufacturers’ standards.
The team was to undertake a skills assessment and provide recommendations on operational improvements to strengthen the power utility’s generation capacity.
The recommendations were expected to include matters of procurement, maintenance regimes and spare part availability.
The report was due to be completed by the end of July and was presented to Godongwana in mid-September 2023.
DA spokesperson for electricity Samantha Graham-Mare said: “Indications are that the Ministry of Finance requested the consultants to extend their mandate and investigate the viability of extending the lives of the coal-fired power stations in order to boost power generation.
“The DA believes that it is in the public interest for this report to be made available.
“Loadshedding is a national crisis that, despite the assurances of the Minister of Electricity, Dr Ramokgopa, is not likely to be solved in the short term,” Graham-Mare said.
“Government is not only under pressure from ordinary South Africans, but also from two ostensible competing interests – the coal industry and the renewable energy sector, both advocating for different approaches to find solutions to the electricity crisis,” she said.
She alleged that Treasury had now “apparently skewed” the report by unilaterally changing the mandate of the consultants towards finding a coal-based solution to the energy crisis.
“It is imperative that we have access to this report to ensure that this ANC government makes rational decisions in a transparent manner,” she said.
