The South African cabinet on Tuesday called for a speedy resolution of the electricity problems in the country to ensure energy certainty.
The Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu made the plea at a press briefing in Pretoria about the outcome of the Cabinet meeting on Dec. 13.
He said the cabinet mandated the Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to negotiate with Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter.
“The cabinet fully supports efforts meant to ensure electricity supply certainty in our country.
“Mr de Ruyter together with management team will immediately deal with concerning issues, governance, lack of financial management as well as stabilise operations at Eskom,” he added.
De Ruyter was recently appointed by the government as the Eskom CEO and is scheduled to commence work on Jan. 15, 2020.
Mthembu said, “this include dealing with huge backlog of maintenance fleet of their power stations and the structural defects of Medupi and Kusile power stations.
He said Renewables would play a key role in our energy supply to complement efforts of Eskom.
Mthembu also mentioned the stability in other state owned enterprises.
He said the cabinet welcomed the business rescue put on the South Africa Airways and hoped it would bring confidence in the airliner.
The cabinet also approved the bio-fuel regulatory framework which has an immediate less carbon intensive alternative.
Earlier, the country experienced a serious load-shedding due to aging machinery, rainy season and lack of governance in the power utility Eskom
