I will today write to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Baleka Mbete, requesting her to call for a debate of public importance on the escalating crisis at Eskom.
   

   
Rule 103(1) states that any member may request the Speaker to place a matter of public importance on the Order Paper for discussion. I will write to her today, and the DA whips represented at the programming meeting at 14:00 today, will push for its inclusion on the Order Paper for tomorrow.
   

   
The provisional schedule for tomorrow’s sitting is pathetic and will take all of 25 minutes to complete. It is clear that the ANC only wants to reconvene Parliament to rubberstamp the Powers and Privileges Committee’s investigation into the events of 21 August. There is more than enough time for Parliament to debate the contents of that report, for the President to come answer questions, as he is required to do by law, and for Parliament to debate the crisis at Eskom.
   

   
The situation at Eskom is of vital and urgent public interest. In recent months, we have faced intermittent power outages as Eskom has struggled with aging infrastructure that needs urgent maintenance. Yesterday, Eskom also announced that its profits plummeted by 24% from last year, indicating that its profits will be down by R4.7 billion compared to last year. The CEO of Eskom has gone so far as to say that Eskom is “living on the edge”. This does not inspire confidence. It is now an open question whether Eskom’s continued financial viability is secure.
   

   
It is truly shocking that at a time when the entity is facing its greatest, but in no means new, challenge that the Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, is so evasive on the subject.
   

   
Minister Brown, and the Eskom management, have been totally uncooperative on releasing information about the true state of Eskom’s power-plants to Parliament and to the public. She must come to Parliament and participate in the debate to put all the facts on the table.
   

   
Minister Brown announced at yesterday’s results briefing that a plan for Eskom’s recovery was in the pipeline, but that she could not divulge further details on it.
   

   
The bottom line is that we need to have a serious conversation about Eskom’s future. The DA believes partial privatisation and the  introduction of independent power producers is now the only solution to our energy shortfall. Government cannot continue to bail Eskom out.
   

   
The debate must take place so that Parliament can begin to tackle  the  problems at Eskom head-on.

 

Issued by DA