For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: Eskom seeks to buy 1 000 megawatts of existing electricity as it declares Stage 6, Ramaphosa races home as South African energy crisis escalates and, whistleblowers need more support in fight against corruption

Eskom seeks to buy 1 000 megawatts of existing electricity as it declares Stage 6

Eskom aims to approach the market imminently with an offer to buy up to 1 000 megawatts of surplus electricity that it believes could be immediately available from existing independent power producers and large companies with their own generation capacity, such as Sasol and Sappi.

CEO André de Ruyter reported that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan had given the utility permission to approach the market on an urgent basis.

Speaking at a briefing to explain Eskom’s decision to declare, stage 6 load-shedding, De Ruyter said that the utility would approach the market on the basis of a dynamic-pricing model, whereby it would contract with suppliers at rates that were competitive with its “highest cost alternative”.

De Ryter indicated that the proposed purchases had not been canvassed with or approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, which will host public hearings this week on Eskom’s request for a 32% tariff hike in 2023.

Ramaphosa races home as South African energy crisis escalates

As South Africa ensures severe power cuts, just two months after the government announced emergency measures to try and end intermittent outages, President Cyril Ramaphosa will cut short an overseas trip to oversee the response to the energy crisis.

The rand weakened to a two-year low against the dollar on Monday, while shares of mining and manufacturing companies slumped.

Ramaphosa, who is in the UK attending Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, decided to skip a planned address to the United Nations General Assembly and head home instead after holding a virtual briefing with cabinet ministers and officials, according to his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.

It is the second time he’s had to curtail an overseas visit to respond to the energy crisis -- he cut short a visit to Egypt in late 2019, just five months after he was elected president.

Whistleblowers need more support in fight against corruption

Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busi Mavuso believes more support for whistleblowers is needed if South Africa is going to make any meaningful headway in the fight against corruption. 

This comes as the BLSA has been working on the Zondo Commission’s recommendations, identifying mechanisms and structures to help combat future corruption and to support other role-players in carrying out their responsibilities. 

Mavuso said the whistleblowers were key in exposing corruption and some paid the ultimate price and added that the assassination of Gauteng Department of Health acting CFO Babita Deokaran, who exposed corruption related to Covid-19 tenders, was the ultimate failure in the State’s responsibility to protect those who come forward with information that puts them at serious risk.  

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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