Eskom now produces more power than SA needs‚ Ben Ngubane says

Eskom has turned itself around and is now generating more power than the country needs‚ the power utility said on Tuesday.

Chairman Ben Ngubane called on industries “to optimise on this excess capacity“‚ to invest and run businesses. “This is not a once off exercise: Eskom has been turned around and will continue to generate surplus electricity‚” said Ngubane.

For this performance he credited the leadership of former CEO Brian Molefe‚ who resigned at the end of 2016 after being negatively implicated in the former public protector’s State of Capture report.

“Brian Molefe’s legacy will go down as the man who turned Eskom around‚” Ngubane said.

Speaking at the utility’s state of the system briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday‚ Ngubane added that Eskom was powering the rest of the region with its surplus capacity.

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown‚ responsible for Eskom‚ said the turnaround would be further aided by the three new power stations under construction. She said electricity demand had been flat for the past 10 years as economic growth dropped to below 1% a year.