By: Natasha Archary
Eskom refutes claims of an imminent collapse of the national grid, assuring South Africans that there are measures in place to avoid the collapse of the power system.
This after Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema on Monday, 15 May, warned South Africans that the country will be plunged into darkness within the next two weeks.
Malema addressed media on Monday, 15 May from the party’s head offices in the Johannesburg CBD, where he claimed the ANC and Eskom heads don’t want to admit to citizens that the grid is collapsing.
“A grid collapse is a reality that South Africans must know. We are heading to darkness and ANC politicians are continuing business as usual, as if we are not in a crisis.
We are in a deep, deep, deep crisis. Cellphone networks will not work, water even if we have it we won’t receive it, because it needs electricity to be pumped to homes and businesses.
Nothing is going to function. We are heading for a disaster, worse than what Covid-19 was.”EFF leader, Julius Malema says South Africa will be plunged into darkness in the next two weeks
EFF leader, Julius Malema
However, the power utility says the risk of a national blackout, while inherent to the operation of a large power system, has an extremely low likelihood of materialising given the implementation of a number of control measures, including loadshedding.
Eskom says the national grid is by no means at a higher or more imminent risk of a collapse and it would take an unforeseen and sudden sequence of events that results in a cascading collapse of the transmission or generation system, leading to a complete loss of supply across the country.
The state-owned entity says it has robust contingency plans in place to deal with such an eventuality.
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