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Cape Town - A visit to Eskom ahead of its quarterly state of the power briefing on Thursday can be seen as a strong sign that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will take an active role in overseeing the turnaround of the state power utility.
Ramaphosa was early last month assigned by President Jacob Zuma to oversee the turnaround of the three ailing state owned companies: Eskom, the South African Airways, and the South African Post Office.
Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe said at the time that cabinet was concerned about the performance of these state-owned companies as they “play critical development role within the South African economy”.
READ: Ramaphosa to oversee Eskom, SAA turnaround
He said the presidency would “closely monitor the implementation of the turnaround plans of these three critical state-owned companies that are drivers of the economy”.
Cabinet at the same time also devised a five-point plan to deal with the electricity crisis and set up a "war room" to implement it.
READ: Cabinet sets up 'war room' for Eskom
On Thursday, Eskom chairperson Zola Tsotsi apologised for the delayed start of the briefing, saying Eskom "had the pleasure of the deputy president visiting and speaking to Eskom this morning".
On the war room and Ramaphosa's visit, Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona said Ramaphosa's visit was for him to experience work of the war room, but he cannot disclose what was discussed.
Read: 6 key points from Eskom load shedding briefing
Matona was giving his second quarterly update of the state of the system since he took office at Eskom three and a half months ago.
The war room is largely technocrats working with Eskom executives. It also comprises the minister of public enterprises and the minister of energy. The deputy president is supposed to provide oversight of all of that, he said.
"The purpose of his [Ramaphosa's] visit today was to see what the progress is on this.
“We welcome government coming to the support of Eskom in that we alone cannot get ourselves out of this situation. The government co-owns the problem,” Matona said.
Read: As it happened: Eskom won't allow a blackout
Matona said since the middle of December Eskom has been working with government technocrats about interventions that government can undertake to assist Eskom. "Where do we get the 3 000MW capacity we need to enable maintenance?"
He said the deputy president must provide political oversight of the whole process. "His visit to Eskom today was for him to come and see and engage with participants about progress."
Referring to the optimism of Eskom's employees, Matona said Ramaphosa on Thursday referred to Eskom as a "glorious company".
In his update of the power system Matona said South Africa's power system is so constrained it has almost exhausted its reserve tank.
Read: Eskom CEO: SA's reserve tank almost exhausted
He compared the power system to a car, saying South Africa has been on a reserve tank and now almost exhausted the reserve space.
"It is like driving a car which has passed its reserve margin, yet the dial continues to move to the point where you could pretty much have a breakdown. We have all but exhausted the reserve space."
He repeatedly said South Africa is living on the edge and explained using of the metaphor of a car is very helpful in explaining the situation.
"The metaphor of the car is helpful as it says if you have a car and you drive it and continue to drive it, it will carry you but at some point it packs up. And this is what is happening with many of the generating units of Eskom.
"Any slight trigger can push us over! We are living on the edge."
Matona said it all boils down to maintenance. "Eskom is a highly technical environment, but we communicate over the heads of the greater public,” he said.
Matona vowed "utmost transparency" at all times. "One fundamental principle that you can be guaranteed we will uphold at all times is utmost transparency and to ensure at all times that the country knows what is happening."
On future load shedding he said the system remains vulnerable. “Any fault in the system pushes us over to load shedding.”
What Fin24 tech editor took out of the briefing:
The full presentation:
