READER LETTER | No hope for Eskom

South Africans may be optimistic about the future of Eskom and hope that the current situation will soon improve.  However, if recent events are anything to go by, Eskom could be in the last stages of its life cycle.

The recent pronouncements by President Cyril Ramaphosa  and energy minister Gwede Mantashe to open the space for alternative power generation seem to be one step closer to throwing in the towel. Ramaphosa said local authorities which were financially viable would be allowed to purchase power from independent power producers.  While the majority of South Africans benefited   when Eskom expanded its distribution to the remote areas, it would appear that  there was no plan to maintain the infrastructure.

Once the power grid for electricity distribution is open, the monopoly which Eskom enjoyed over the years will surely be killed. 

The whopping R450bn current Eskom debt and continued reliance on government for bailouts is shocking as  the power utility  continues to make huge losses.  Worse still,  Eskom continues to leech funding from other  government sources  without feasible forecast plans which suggest it will ever  be out of the woods.

Eskom appears to have reached capacity a long time ago and government continued to stretch this until it snapped. The use of fossil fuel (coal), although deemed the cheapest, is subject to depletion and is not environmentally friendly, and as a result it seems to have been overtaken by the new sustainability practices.

The Eastern Cape, with the highest unemployment figures, will be the hardest hit by the new power generation arrangements. Small businesses are unlikely to  have capacity to generate  their own cheaper electricity or to pay for new expensive, privately supplied electricity unless some kind of subsidy is rolled out to avert the possible demise. — Mzwandile Ferguson Mbenenge, via e-mail