South African Deputy-President, David Mabuza, recently visited the Kusile Power Station in the Mpumalanga province to evaluate the progress being made.
This visit was in the Deputy-President’s capacity as Chairperson of the Political Task Team on the country’s state-owned power utility Eskom.
The Political Task Team noted the increased output to 2,400MW that is now being generated by Kusile Power plant to support the national grid, thereby assisting in the reduction of the occurrence of loadshedding. Upon completion by the end of 2023, the Kusile power station will provide 4,800 megawatts of electricity to the grid.
“We are encouraged by the progress we have witnesses here at the Kusile Power Station. Kusile has now completed 3 units and they are now in a process of taking the forth unit to commercial operation by mid next year. This is significant, in the context of economic reconstruction and recovery to mitigate against the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns on our economy,” said Mabuza.
The deputy president also welcomed the fact that the Power Station has integrated an environmentally friendly technology to mitigate against carbon emissions.
He noted that construction activities at Kusile Power Station are winding down, with currently 5,000 construction workers on site. At the peak of building activities there were more than 15,000 construction workers on site.
On conclusion of his visit to Kusile, Deputy President Mabuza commended the leadership of Eskom on progress made in the construction and the correction in the design defects of the Power Station.
Deputy President Mabuza will convene the Eskom Political Task Team meeting in the coming week, to further discuss the critical challenge of debts owed by municipalities to Eskom in particular the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality.
