Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has disclosed that Eskom has spent billions burning diesel in the past five years.

Eskom has spent R64.7 billion between the 2019/2020 and 2023/24 financial year, with more money spent in the last two financial periods.

Gordhan said during the 2019/2020 period Eskom spent R5.8bn and the following financial year it spent R5.76bn.

But load shedding continued to impact on the supply of electricity and this led to more expenditure on diesel.

In the 2021/2022 financial year, the power utility spent R8.60bn burning diesel. But in the following financial year, the expenditure more than doubled after Eskom allocated R21.25bn for diesel.

But Eskom’s continued implementation of load shedding led to it spending R23.38 in the 2023/24 financial year.

Gordhan was replying to a written parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance member Farhat Essack.

Eskom has not implemented load shedding in the last few weeks.

Political parties said this was a ploy ahead of the national and provincial elections.

Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa denied this and said the work that has been done has led to more energy security.

The power utility is also in the process of unbundling.

Ramokgopa has also said they need to raise more funds to expand transmission lines.

The country would need R390 billion for grid expansion in the next decade.

The country would need to build more transmission lines in the coastal provinces of the Western Cape, the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape.

Some of the renewable energy projects cold not be connected to the grid because of lack of grid capacity in these provinces.

Ramokgopa said there were investors who were willing to invest in grid expansion projects.

siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za

IOL Politics