CACHALIA on new plan to fix ESKOM & “political interference” in maintenance schedule

The success of a new plan to fix ESKOM hinges on the implementation, the funds available to actually implement it - and the political will to do so. That is the warning from the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises Ghaleb Cachalia. He speaks to BizNews following the announcement that Germany-based energy consultants have completed a review of South Africa’s struggling coal-fired plants to present a revival plan to Treasury. Meanwhile, Cachalia accuses government of “political interference” in the run-up to election. “…if you look at ESKOM’s just recently published…schedule of planned maintenance, you'll see that there's a lot of maintenance going on now and over a period of time leading up to the elections. Just before the elections the planned maintenance comes down. So we suffer now in Stage Seven, but hey presto, somebody “fixes” everything…just around the election time.”