Almost two months have passed since the National Treasury received a report on Eskom’s operational matters, including delaying the decommissioning of some of its old coal-fired power stations, from German energy consultants vgbe.
The report has still not been released publicly. Enquiries by Business Day suggest that few, if any, of the members of the national energy crisis committee — which has to map and manage SA’s way out of the energy crisis — have had eyes on the report.
The DA and the Centre for Environmental Rights have submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act application to the Treasury to request a copy of the report.
The report was commissioned to inform the conditions set by the Treasury for the R254bn debt relief package to Eskom. The Treasury said in the 2023 national budget that the review would advise on operational improvements Eskom would be required to implement as part of the bailout conditions, and to determine which plants could be resuscitated to original equipment manufacturers’ standards.
The report should be straightforward and the delays and reluctance to release the report publicly will only lead to unnecessary speculation about potentially politically unsavoury findings, such as the ANC’s push to extend the life of ageing coal-fired power stations coming at too high a cost, which will saddle SA with dirty, expensive electricity for decades to come.
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