“Regretfully, Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented again”. This is the latest announcement from Eskom following yesterday’s bombshell that five generating units had tripped resulting in a loss of 16 800 MW in addition to the 4800 MW which was already offline for planned maintenance.

According to Eskom’s announcement this morning, of the five units which had failed yesterday, a unit at Majuba, Kriel and Matimba power stations have been returned to service, reducing the loss through breakdowns from 16 800 MW to 15 485 MW.

Loss of available power generation due to planned maintenance decreased overnight from 4800 MW to 4100 MW.

Eskom says that it lost a “unit each at Medupi, Duvha and Kendal power stations this morning” which will result in the power utility instituting load shedding from 14h00 today.

Load shedding expected to last until Saturday morning “to preserve the remaining emergency reserves at the OCGT and pump storage power stations in order to prevent higher stages of loadshedding.”

Eskom says it will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system.

But that’s not the end of the story.

According to an email sent to the media on 10 November this year, a technical report given to Eskom and Pravin Gordhan, the minister of public enterprises, in April 2019 has been kept secret.

The report was written by an eleven-member technical task team which had been appointed by the minister in March 2019 to investigate the root cause behind load shedding. The team, which included highly qualified and experienced academic and power systems professionals and were required to conduct an intensive review of the operations, maintenance and the technical environment at Eskom power stations, studied and compiled a report on:

• Plant unavailability due to scheduled maintenance
• Plant unavailability due to unplanned outages and unscheduled maintenance
• Operator errors resulting in power plants tripping and shutting down
• Technical and operator associated inefficiencies resulting in lower than optimum electricity output from the power station units

The report contains technical findings and recommendations on what needed to be done to improve Eskom's operations to stop load shedding. However, although the team delivered its report to Minister Gordhan and the Eskom board towards the end of April 2019, its findings and recommendations have not been made public.

It might be that Eskom is not free to speak about the report – political interference in the affairs of Eskom is nothing new – especially since we note that the current CEO appears to be far more transparent and open during interviews and public announcements than some of his predecessors ever were.

The onus is therefore on the minister to give South Africans an explanation.

We notice however, that he has remained silent amidst the latest rounds of load shedding, despite being directly responsible for Eskom as the country’s biggest and most vital state-owned enterprises.

It’s time for Minister Gordhan to follow President Ramaphosa’s example during the Covid-19 lockdown – speak to the public openly and frequently via television.