The Democratic Alliance (DA) has asked for clarity on government’s position of selling off parts of Eskom.

The DA shadow minister of public enterprises‚ Natasha Mazzone‚ on Friday said she wants the chairperson of the portfolio committee on public enterprises to “urgently summon the head of the African National Congress’s Economic Transformation Committee‚ Enoch Godongwana‚ and the public enterprises minister‚ Lynne Brown".

On Thursday‚ Brown said she “she was not in favour of privatising or partially privatising Eskom”‚ said Mazzone.

This‚ she said‚ “is in direct contradiction to the comments by Godongwana‚ who stated that the ANC has decided that part of Eskom must be sold to raise funds to keep the lights on”.

Brown’s comments also don’t sit well with those of made by treasury’s Director-General Lungisa Fuzile‚ who was quoted as saying the energy “war room” was looking at ways to get the private sector involved in Eskom.

This included‚ Business day reported this week‚ dusting off an old policy that could see the private sector take a stake of up to 30% in state utility Eskom’s power-generating assets.

Mazzone said the committee must compel Brown and Godongwana to “come clean to South Africans regarding the government’s intention regarding Eskom and the selling of its non-strategic assets as an interim measure”.

“Eskom has gone from bad to worse‚ while South Africans and the economy suffer. The financial crisis at Eskom vindicates the DA’s position that the generation of South Africa’s power must be broadened to include independent power producers‚” said Mazzone.

“Parliament needs to be afforded the opportunity to interrogate the proposals of any privatisation deal and ensure that the money pumped into Eskom by the South African public is used wisely.

“For the good of our nation’s economy and its capacity to sustain our people’s livelihoods‚ we will continue to submit demands that will lead to a constant uninterrupted supply of electricity.”