ANC not solely responsible for Eskom crisis, says Mabuza

Mabuza was answering questions in the National Council of Provinces on Thursday.

South Africans have had to endure more than 30 days of load shedding this year - with Eskom warning that the situation is unlikely to improve during the winter.

MPs grilled Mabuza about the energy crisis crippling the country’s economy and the ANC government’s role in crippling the power utility.

Mabuza, who chairs the government task team on Eskom, said Eskom directors and managers must also account for the various failures at the power utility.

“We can only acknowledge the responsibility of the ANC government in the running of this power utility Eskom. But I must alert the honourable member that at every point in the life of Eskom, there has been a COO, and there have been directors that are responsible for the day to day running of this power utility."

READ: No end in sight to load shedding as Eskom sounds winter warning

“There has been a board that is responsible, and up until we are told what the responsibility of those structures was, the board itself, the administration, and all the directors that were there for this crisis that we are seeing today.

“What I can tell you is that what I see in Eskom is the lack of maintenance of this power station, it is the cost overrun of the two new-build stations Medupi and Khusile. 

"We have incurred a lot of overruns, and there are design problems which were supposed to be the responsibility of the engineers who work at Eskom and the CEO to ensure that we avoid these unnecessary costs,” the deputy president said.

“There are people who have been appointed, in different positions, in this power utility, to do certain specific jobs. I can tell you that at a certain point these people that have been appointed failed. They failed the government.”