Only one unit out of six at the Kusile Power Station which is under construction in Mpumalanga is online and contributing to the national grid. Eskom management briefed members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises who conducted an oversight visit at the power station.
More than R140 billion has been used to build the Kusile Power Station from the R161 billion that was budgeted. The work is still going on despite some delays experienced in the past.
“They are not necessarily behind time, they still have a number of defects that they still need to deal with including commissioning some of the units. There is only one unit that is currently operational others are being commissioned and others are still dealing with some defects. They are promising us that by May next year they will be finished with building Kusile,” says Committee Chairperson Khaya Magaxa
The Members of Parliament are worried about allegations of corruption against Eskom in the building of an accommodation facility at the station. They learned that the building adjacent to the power station is not being used after Eskom spent R800 million to build it.
Magaxa says law enforcement agencies must speed up investigating allegations of corruption.
“A serious concern as Members of Parliament is a block of flats which was to be built for engineers and it was budgeted for R280 million but today they are talking about R800 million that has been spent, on a building that is not necessarily utilised. It’s a huge building that is abandoned there which is not used, they are saying the manager in charge of that particular building has been fired by Eskom.”
Magaxa says te power utility promised to fix the electricity crisis in the country.
“ The money that was budgeted was R161 billion and so far they have utilised R141 billion, in terms of explanation knowing, of course, some of the problems, some are corruption-related problems, but otherwise they are promising that they are doing all in their power to resolve the problem of electricity in the country.”
Eskom made the presentation to Members of Parliament at the station.
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