Opinion / Columnist
Thabo Mbeki lied about causes of load-shedding
14 Mar 2024 at 16:23hrs | Views
Former President Mbeki referred in his yesterday's speech to the coal stockholding at Eskom in 2007-2008.
He got the facts wrong, and unless corrected, gullible South Africans will believe the lie.
The coal stock until 2008 was ten days. It changed to 20 days after Thabo Mbeki's government refused to invest in new generation capacity - a severe indictment.
Today, the coal stock is 73 days. It is the consequence of a poor energy availability factor. I say this because the reserve margin is healthy.
At an average coal price of R550 per tonne and a coal burn of 99.5Mt per annum, the coal stock is worth R11 billion. That's bad business by any standard.
I have not seen the SIU report cited by TM. I submit, given the above facts, that the report was either quoted out of context; alternatively, it was meant to sanitize the man from Sussex by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ถ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐๐ฒ.
What former President Mbeki did yesterday was an attempt to change the belief that his government was directly responsible for the first incidents of load-shedding in 2007-2008.
He grossly misrepresented the facts. Of course, Eskom is not going to correct him for obvious reasons.
The fact is, the reserve margin in 2007 was down to 2% instead of 15%. The power system ran out of peaking generation capacity.
The 1000MW of OCTGs that government promised was nowhere to be found. That is why we quickly had to construct Ankerlig and Garikwa. It took us 19months to do that.
I found Former President manipulative, deceitful, and sly in his narrative of what caused load-shedding in 2007-2008.
He needs to man up and accept his culpability.
He got the facts wrong, and unless corrected, gullible South Africans will believe the lie.
The coal stock until 2008 was ten days. It changed to 20 days after Thabo Mbeki's government refused to invest in new generation capacity - a severe indictment.
Today, the coal stock is 73 days. It is the consequence of a poor energy availability factor. I say this because the reserve margin is healthy.
At an average coal price of R550 per tonne and a coal burn of 99.5Mt per annum, the coal stock is worth R11 billion. That's bad business by any standard.
I have not seen the SIU report cited by TM. I submit, given the above facts, that the report was either quoted out of context; alternatively, it was meant to sanitize the man from Sussex by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
What former President Mbeki did yesterday was an attempt to change the belief that his government was directly responsible for the first incidents of load-shedding in 2007-2008.
He grossly misrepresented the facts. Of course, Eskom is not going to correct him for obvious reasons.
The fact is, the reserve margin in 2007 was down to 2% instead of 15%. The power system ran out of peaking generation capacity.
The 1000MW of OCTGs that government promised was nowhere to be found. That is why we quickly had to construct Ankerlig and Garikwa. It took us 19months to do that.
I found Former President manipulative, deceitful, and sly in his narrative of what caused load-shedding in 2007-2008.
He needs to man up and accept his culpability.
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