The crisis at Eskom that forced SA’s underground mines to shut down put the spotlight squarely on the government’s inability to allow third parties to enter the electricity generation space.
For the stability of the national grid, having large users able to source part of their energy needs from renewable sources brings a number of benefits. Third, it reduces mining companies’ exposure to the six-fold increase in electricity prices in little more than a decade and which have not resulted in improved electricity supply. To the contrary, electricity supply is as precarious if not more so than 11 years ago when Eskom plunged the country into a crisis.
It’s a complex mess brought on by the deployment of inept, unskilled and eminently unsuitable political stooges to the upper echelons of Eskom management. Tough decisions are needed on Eskom that will undoubtedly alienate the ANC’s alliance partners in labour and the SA Communist Party. These decisions are of national importance and transcend the internal politics and comfort of the ANC, which has sunk the country to its lowest levels in decades.
This is the true intention of this crisis
The mines should consider diversification into power generation.