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Eskom gags contractors from speaking to the media

Cape Town - Eskom has reportedly ordered a communication blackout after sidelining its public spokesperson Andrew Etzinger and ordering contractors not to talk to the media.

READ: Current stage 2 load shedding to last until 22:00

The Sunday Times reports that this new development comes less than a month after CEO Tshediso Matona promised complete transparency with regards to the ongoing power crisis.

Etzinger was removed as spokesperson last week while contractors told the newspaper that they had been ordered to remain silent on any problems at the Medupi and Kusile power stations.

READ: Lessons for Eskom's new spokesperson

It was reported that seven contractors said they had been issued with confidentiality agreements that could result in them being fired if they spoke out. Three European contractors said that any hint of a breach would see them “on the next plane home”.

However, Eskom’s new spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe denied that government and Eskom representatives had taken over communication duties.

This new development comes on the back of rolling blackouts that plunged the country into darkness last week. It also comes exactly two months to the day after Matona went public to say the country is not experiencing a power supply crisis, as reported by Fin24.

"There is no crisis at Eskom. I think the way Eskom gets reported on creates the perception of a crisis," Matona told reporters in Johannesburg on December 8 last year.

READ: Eskom CEO raising funds in US as Koeberg unit gets fixed

He said the power utility needed financial stability and additional power to make sure electricity supply was reliable.

"We sell electricity below cost compared to other countries. We have spoken about this before... It is a matter of policy implementation, which we do not do ourselves."

Eskom did not anticipate implementing its stage three schedule of rolling blackouts again this month, he said, referring to the December blackouts that plagued the nation.

He said at the time that electricity supply was expected to be constrained in February and March because of budgetary constraints.

"Our financial director is looking at options in this regard," he said adding that the power supply would depend on the availability of diesel during the period.

However, this week Eskom blamed the latest outages on a shortage of generation capacity as several units are currently on unplanned outages due to technical faults.

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