Electricity Minister Reveals If Load Shedding Will Return After Elections
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has addressed the growing speculation among South Africans that Eskom will revert to regular load shedding once the upcoming elections are held.
Electricity Minister Reveals If Load Shedding Will Return After Elections
During an interview on Kaya 959, Minister Ramokgopa responded to questions regarding the likelihood of load shedding resuming after the elections. When asked about load shedding during the upcoming winter season, Ramokgopa refrained from giving a definitive answer. He explained that under the best-case scenario, load shedding might not occur this winter.
“I can’t make an absolute statement. The one thing that I don’t want to do is lie to the South African public. Eskom released its winter outlook. So if we are to perform our possible scenario is that if 14000 megawatts of unplanned failures. So essentially 14000 outside the grid that’s our base case. If we maintain that we achieve 14000 megawatts. Even with peak demand of winter, you are not going to have load shedding,” he explained.
Maimane Bets R1,000 Load Shedding Will Return After Votes
Meanwhile, Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane has offered to back his claims about Eskom’s operations with a wager. Maimane alleged that Eskom is spending vast sums on diesel to divert attention from the six-year-long load-shedding ordeal endured by South Africans.
His claim has drawn a flurry of reactions, with some, including Clement Manyathela, pointing out that Eskom has refuted such allegations. Undeterred, Maimane challenged Manyathela, proposing a R1,000 bet that load shedding will resume shortly after the votes were cast. The winnings, he said, would be donated to the charity of the victor’s choice.
“You can’t speak to the Eskom board and take their word for it. Mail and Guardian did an extensive report on this and several energy experts have stated that this is diesel burning. Let’s do this. Let’s bet R1000 that soon and very soon load shedding will be back. The money will go to a charity of the winners choice,” Maimane declared on X (formerly Twitter).
At the time of writing, Manyathela had not yet responded to the wager.