Former President Thabo Mbeki has made explosive allegations regarding Eskom, alleging that the power utility’s management deliberately created the electricity crisis and load shedding.
The former statesman was speaking at Unisa on Thursday night during a dialogue held by the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs.
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Mbeki stated that the first nationwide power outage in South Africa occurred in January 2008.
“The mines closed for a whole week. It was a serious crisis,” Mbeki told delegates.
He asserts that Eskom advised the government in 1998 that new generation capacity and infrastructure needed to be invested in.
“Government didn’t listen, hence the blackout in January 2008. That story was false. That story was cooked up. The reason there was a shutdown is because the people in charge of the power stations didn’t do what they supposed to do which was to replenish coal,” Mbeki said.
Mbeki said former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe was “correct” when he indicated he was tasked with dealing with load shedding.
Load shedding resumed after Molefe’s departure. Mbeki explained that it was because the new Eskom executives “did not behave like Brian Molefe.”
Mbeki said that the new Eskom leadership purposefully failed to maintain the power stations, resulting in malfunctions and the reintroduction of rotational power interruptions.
The former president further blamed load shedding on black economic empowerment (BEE), using the Kusile power facility as an example.
He indicated that Eskom hired an Indian business to construct Unit 1 at Kusile. Nevertheless, when it came time to build Units 2 and 3, Eskom asked that the Indian company bring on a BEE partner, according to Mbeki.
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Mbeki stated that the contract was terminated because the Indian company was unable to reach an agreement with Eskom on BEE.
“Kusile is still not finished to this day. I’m saying it’s deliberate,” he said. “It’s people that wanted to create an electricity crisis, in the same way they wanted to create a revenue crisis by the destruction of Sars.”
You can watch the video below:
MBEKI: SARS AND ESKOM DELIBERATELY DESTROYED
Former President, Thabo Mbeki, Says SARS and Eskom Deliberately Destroyed/Collapsed; All (Other) Things (Systematically) Going Wrong
He Says Baine trained Tom Moyane to destroy SARS and there are people out to destroy the democratic… pic.twitter.com/rdzKcXurle
— Mr. Tshweu (@TshweuMoleme) August 25, 2023
