Three months after the position was announced, the full extent of the electricity minister's powers and functions have yet to be finalised, and the president is preparing to meet ministers to discuss this.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told reporters in parliament on Wednesday that President Cyril Ramaphosa would meet other ministers who have some level of responsibility for Eskom to discuss and clarify the functions and powers of electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa's office in relation to the power utility.
Regarding these power stations that must be closed ... let me leave that to the [electricity] minister. He said he will take all the hot potatoes
— Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe
Ministers who oversee aspects of Eskom — public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, finance minister Enoch Godongwana, mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe and Ramokgopa — have not been shy in expressing their opinions about how best to handle load-shedding as the threat of more severe power cuts looms in winter.
By April, Ramokgopa had unveiled his plan to stave off severe winter load-shedding and bring it to an end in the distant future. His proposals included included extending the life of coal power plants and buying more diesel for open-cycle gas turbines, reports have said.
During a set of oral replies in parliament on Wednesday and Thursday, the ministers responsible for Eskom commented extensively on the energy crisis, but each pointed out that their say on the matter had limits.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana told MPs that he agreed with the National Energy Regulator's (Nersa) tariff hike.
“What it attempts to do is to give Eskom a cost-reflective tariff. Why would I be passionate in supporting this in such an environment is precisely because I am taking a quantum leap in resolving Eskom’s debt,” said Godongwana.
Godongwana said municipalities would continue to face challenges with electricity tariffs as a funding model and that the revenue model for local government needed to be reassessed to find more sustainable options.
“The quick question is, are municipalities going to continue to rely on electricity as a source of revenue? That model is under threat. There needs to be a separate discussion about sustainability and alternative sources of revenue,” Godongwana said.
Mantashe said that one of the discussions with Ramokgopa was about why Eskom was not getting coal from nearby mines but was procuring it from far away at an added cost. While his department could raise the issue with Ramokgopa’s office, it could not make the final decision.
“Eskom has contracts to ensure that the quantity and quality of coal is in accordance with the agreed conditions. This is not a departmental issue,” said Mantashe.
He said procuring coal from nearby coal mines would cut out the risk of coal being tampered with by criminal syndicates.
DA MP Kevin Mileham asked Mantashe if coal power plants such as Komati were being decommissioned because they had reached the end of their life cycle or because they were not able to secure a steady supply of quality coal.
“Commissioning and decommissioning of power stations is not within my scope. If I had the scope, I would not have decommissioned Komati. Komati was giving us electricity at 70% of the energy availability factor ... And today we have a solar plant in Komati.
“That solar plant, instead of the 1,300MW that Komati provided, gave us 200MW. Therefore, that decision to decommission Komati, I submit, was wrong. Regarding these power stations that must be closed ... let me leave that to the [electricity] minister. He said he will take all the hot potatoes,” Mantashe replied.
The time allotted for oral replies expired before Ramokgopa could reply to questions from MPs.
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