Floyd Shivambu blasts sabotage trio as puppets for capitalist IPPs

EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu does not believe that the alleged sabotage that was perpetrated against Eskom was the work of a disgruntled employee.

Ramaphosa’s version of the alleged sabotage

During the much-anticipated media briefing, President Cyril Ramaphosa pinned the recent load shedding crisis on an Eskom employee – only known to the utility’s management and the police – that purposefully caused the failure of two boilers which, as a consequence, tripped 2 000MW off the grid.

Ramaphosa stressed the fact that there were dark forces trying to destabilise the work they have begun to unbundle Eskom. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has already come out in defence, vehemently denying that Eskom workers were involved in a revolt against the power utility.

NUM’s energy sector coordinator Paris Mashego did, however, warn that incoming Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyters, whose primary mandate will be to initiate the unbundling process, would get a “warm welcoming party” in the form of a protest of some sort.

Floyd Shivambu fumes at Eskom trio

The in-fighting that has gripped Eskom is the least of Floyd Shivambu’s concerns. Instead, the EFF deputy leader believes that South Africans are being played by Ramaphosa, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and outgoing Eskom CEO and board chairperson Jabu Mabuza.

According to Shivambu, the whole load shedding crisis was a strategic rollout for what is to come. He firmly believes that Ramaphosa, Gordhan and Mabuza, have purposefully plunged South Africa into darkness to initiate a move for Eskom to share generation capacity with Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

There’s definitely sabotage in ESKOM And it’s caused by these three people; Jamnandas, Mabuza &Ramaphosa. The capitalist intention is to sabotage the generation capacity of Eskom so that IPPs can play a central role. It’s sabotage motivated by capitalist greed. We will stop them! pic.twitter.com/HTU4XvfrF8

— Floyd Shivambu (@FloydShivambu) December 12, 2019

For Shivambu, this is a capitalist move that will only benefit the trio, as the state sells yet another of its entities off to the private sector.

The issue of the role of IPPs and whether they will, in the near future, be granted leave to sell alternative energy sources to municipalities directly is the subject of a court case between the DA-led City of Cape Town and the Department of Energy.

Amid the crisis faced by Eskom, the DA has been breathing down the neck of Minerals and Energy Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe to assign extended generation rights to IPPs so they can, according to John Steenhuisen, “alleviate power shortage”.

Shivambu has refused to bite this bullet though. He claims the whole deal is irrational since IPPs “have no capacity to collectively even produce 5% of the electricity needed”.