The Minerals Council South Africa on Friday called on the government to fix the electricity crisis as the sector “is losing production hours and it will affect the country’s economy”.
The council was responding to over week-long load shedding by the power utility Eskom which forced them to suspend some operations.
Eskom wrote to the mining sector this week asking them to shed off 20 per cent of their electricity use.
“Eskom is essentially making an industrial policy decision to downscale the mining sector when they make these stages 4 and stage 6 calls,” said Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter.
Eskom blamed the load shedding on unplanned breakdowns, sabotage and the rainy season.
Stage 6 load shedding means that the grid will need to shed 6,000mw of power to keep the national power grid from collapsing.
Stage 4 allows for up to 4,000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Baxter said the government should speedily allow establishment of self-generation facilities to supplement Eskom’s constrained capacity.
They also called for the government to open the way for further generation by independent power producers.
“We need concrete action plans and accountability for delivery and we are asking the government to unleash the energy of the private sector to help resolve this national electricity crisis,” he added.
