The Black Business Council (BBC) has slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet over the electricity blackouts, saying he is indecisive while rolling power cuts continue to paralyse the economy.
In a statement on Thursday, the powerful business organisation reiterated the call to Ramaphosa to fire the board of Eskom, the power utility’s CEO Andre de Ruyter and the state-owned company’s chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer.
“The indecisive leadership of president Ramaphosa and his cabinet on the matter of energy security continues to paralyse the country and its economy,” the council said.
“The BBC emphasises that the focus of government should be on stabilising and improving the performance of the existing fleet of Eskom, as this is the only technically sound and proven method that can end the economy-destroying blackouts.
“The obsession with technologies that do not provide base-load such as solar and wind will not solve loadshedding, as evidenced by Germany and other European countries reviving their coal-powered stations.
The BBC’s call comes after an emergency meeting on Wednesday by cabinet after the president cut his international travel short amid stage-five power blackouts.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan presented a briefing on the capacity of Eskom and a progress report from the technical committee of the national energy crisis committee.
Cabinet is still deliberating on the reports, said its spokesperson Phumla Williams. However, the BBC said it is “very disheartened” by the government’s response to the ongoing loadshedding.
“We view this as government being run through public relations trying to create an impression that they are doing something while actually doing nothing to resolve blackouts,” said the council.
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