Q&A’s, 2006

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Question for Written Reply

Question 286

Adv H C Schmidt (DA) to ask the Minister for Public Enterprises:

1. Whether Eskom continued to supply electricity to (a) Zimbabwe, (b) Namibia, (c) Botswana and (d) other African countries during the period 1 to 28 February 2006 while the Western Cape was experiencing power outages because of the problems experienced at the Koeberg power station; if so, (i) to which countries was electricity supplied and (ii) what amount of power was supplied;
   
2. whether the extent of power supply to those countries was reduced; if so, to what extent;
   
3. whether discussions with the utilities or the governments of these countries were undertaken to reduce the amount of electricity supplied; if so, (a) when were these discussions undertaken and (b) what were the results thereof? N311E

Reply

1. Eskom continued to supply electricity to African countries, namely Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe during the period 1 to 28 February 2006. The total electricity supplied to these countries was 1 038 395,82 MWh (approximately 6.2% of the electricity sold to South African customers during the same period). On average, this equates to approximately 1500MW.
   
2. Power supply was reduced to Namibia and Zimbabwe in accordance with the relevant contractual provisions.
3. (3) As already stated, the reduction of power supply to the particular countries was in accordance with the relevant contractual provisions. Eskom had discussions in this regard with the National electricity utilities of Namibia and Zimbabwe, NamPower and ZESA, (who are Eskom's customers). Eskom also had discussions with utilities in the SADC region at a Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) general meeting during February 2006.