FAILURE TO FIX ESKOM PLANT PERFORMANCE COULD PIT SOCIETY AGAINST GOVT - MANTASHE

CAPE TOWN - The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, highlighted the critical need to address Eskom’s declining plant performance.

Addressing the opening of the 2023 Investing in African Mining Indaba on Monday, Mantashe said failure to fix this, and subsequent higher stages of load shedding, could potentially pit society against government.

The minister reiterated that the key focus was to stop a further decline in the country’s energy availability factor (EAF).

Mantashe said the EAF factor had dropped from 75% to just 49%.

“That’s why, as a Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, we’ll put four points that we think need attention if we’re going to overcome load shedding within the next twelve months."

Government's other focuses were onbuying additional power from neighbouring countriesand improving Eskom's skills capacity.