Eskom’s ‘self-created emergency’ cost SA R14.5-trillion
Date: Apr 01, 2019
The report released by the SIU placed the blame squarely at the feet of Eskom officials who ignored repeated warnings that coal stocks were running low.
The first round of load shedding experienced by the country in 2008 reportedly cost South Africa R14.5-trillion – a fee which allegedly went towards funding emergency contracts signed by Eskom to benefit coal suppliers.
This is according to the report compiled and published by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) which was handed to former president Jacob Zuma in 2017, but never officially released.
City Press reports that Eskom employees engineered load-shedding in an effort to ensure the signing of long-term coal contracts which were handed out without proper tender processes.
“The figure of R14.5 trillion is … the total value of all coal contracts entered into during the emergency-period negotiations at Eskom. The value is the cost of the contracts for the entire duration of the contract,” wrote SIU spokesperson Nazreen Pandor in a written reply to the publication.
“The emergency situation that Eskom found itself in was self-created and thus, could have been avoided by the exercise of reasonable care,” stated the report which placed the blame squarely at the feet of Eskom officials who ignored repeated warnings that coal stocks were running low.
