Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan is planning to meet with the ANC Youth League after he was slammed by the youth body over the unbundling of Eskom.
Gordhan has also demanded an apology from ANCYL president Collen Malatji.
Malatji accused Gordhan of privatising the power utility.
But this was denied by Gordhan, who said this was a misinformation campaign peddled by those who have vested interests.
However, Ramaphosa said at the time Eskom will remain the holding company.
Gordhan has also been attacked by the unions who said he was selling Eskom.
The National Union of Mineworkers (Num) said this week Gordhan was going ahead with the unbundling of Eskom without consulting them.
“The Num met with Eskom on Thursday where the power utility announced that it was going to transfer the company's distribution assets to a new state-owned company. As Num, we are shocked that distribution has been sold after seeing the letter circulating on social media. We still hold that unbundling is not good for the country.
“The Num remains opposed to the unbundling of Eskom. Eskom and the Minister of Public Enterprises are unilaterally implementing this decision without proper consultation with key stakeholders such as the unions and the public.
“The unbundling of Eskom will not save Eskom from declining revenue, escalating debt, escalating primary energy costs and a realistic plant maintenance program. Scientists have proved that the envisaged solar and wind IPPs have an Energy Capacity factor of less than 40%. This means that electricity from wind and solar is only available 40% of the time, the other 60% of the time we need to supplement with another source of energy.
“The Num further noticed the decision to unbundle Eskom is a first step towards the privatisation of Eskom. It is what we characterise as green colonization, as all these green projects are coming from former colonisers,” said Num.
Gordhan said he wants to meet with the ANCYL over its attack on him.
He said the facts about Eskom were deliberately distorted by those with vested interests who wanted to tarnish his name and undermine efforts by the state to fix State-Owned Entities.
He said Eskom will remain the holding company, with the three entities falling under it. The three entities will be wholly-owned by Eskom.
Government was not going to sell them.
“The latest attacks from Collen Malatji (from whom the minister has demanded a public apology for his ill-considered statement) and from counter-revolutionaries and other discredited characters, underscore the fact that the public ought to know that there are vested interests intent on crippling ongoing reform of SOEs to the detriment of millions of South Africans. Minister Gordhan said he will be meeting with the ANC Youth League shortly,” said the department.
Gordhan said they will continue to fight corruption wherever it rears its ugly head.
The youth league was slammed by the ANC a few weeks ago after it publicly criticised Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi.
It called for the axing of Nxesi, saying he was the minister of unemployment.
The ANC said while the league can discuss matters affecting the state “we do not encourage insults on deployees who are seized with these issues”.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics