This festive season could be a doom and gloomy one Photo Pexels
South Africa – December is known as the festive season across the globe. While cities around the world will be basking in the Christmas lights, South Africans might have to contend with sitting in the dark. This comes as Eskom has moved to stage 6 loadshedding and there are talks it could go to stage 8.
It seems Eskom has almost given up on finding last solutions to the energy crisis. There is even talk the nation could be plunged into complete darkness. While there is a crisis committee in place, nobody knows exactly what is going on. Zakhele Madele, Social and Energy Expert at South African energy forum, has welcomed the calls for Eskom to be called a national disaster.
“I think the calls for a national disaster is very much welcome because it will help us. We’ve been calling for Eskom to be placed under what they call judiciary judicial management where the people who are currently looking after Eskom are going to have to be moved aside. Get people with an independent set of eyes in and install stability there. That’s what we need.”
The likelihood of a complete grid collapse and the reasons
Everyday South Africa edges closer and closer to higher levels of loadshedding. With that comes the increase risk of the entire electricity grid failing. While Eskom has blamed the breakdown of different units for loadshedding, Madele believes this is far from the truth.
“We’re going to get into that [complete grid collapse] if people are allowed to lie. Eskom’s spokesperson comes out and tells you there are so many units that have broken down. He’s lying. What brought us to this now are the result of two things. It’s them having exhausted the budget for diesel. What exacerbated that is they closed down unit one in Koeberg. I’ve always said if you want to see how reliant this country is on gas, coal and nuclear energy, just shut down Koeberg and this country will be subjected to permanent loadshedding.”
Eskom shut down one reactor unit at Koeberg Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday. They then announced that other power stations had suffered from breakdowns, which is a lie, said Madele. In his view, Eskom has been burning diesel rapidly to maintain loadshedding but this was heavily reliant on Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.
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Coal power stations will need to return or loadshedding will get worse
While Andre de Ruyter is calling for the country to stop using coal, England have opened a new coal mine. Countries like England and Germany have been using nuclear energy and coal power plants while calling for South Africa to shift to renewable energy, said Madele. Germany is even importing coal from South Africa.
“Go to the roads leading to Richards Bay. There is congestion. The coal is going to Germany. The Germans realise that without coal they are not going to be able to survive … They are buying our coal in order to fuel their economy. Andre de Ruyter is saying we don’t want these coal power stations. Unfortunately for them, we’re going to have to fix those cold power stations because without them the lights are going to go off for four weeks, non-stop.”
The only way to get Eskom running properly again is to put them under judiciary judicial management. Madele promised that if this happens, people like himself and others will come in and end loadshedding and it won’t be through some magical feat.
“[A] New set of people is going to come in including myself. They will stop the loadshedding. We will tell the people what’s going on and we will look at what other countries are doing. We will do exactly what England is doing. We’ll do exactly what Germany is doing. We’re not going to come up with any magic. We’re going to do what other countries are doing which is what these people are not doing.”
Countries like China, India and Vietnam have all refused to go green citing their economy won’t survive. However, South Africa is insistent on going green even though we have huge coal reserves. For Madele, if Eskom is not placed under judiciary judicial management, South Africans should brave themselves for a very dark and gloomy Christmas.
