Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan acknowledged that Eskom is in crisis but has dismissed suggestions that the utility is broken and heading for a “protracted failure”, saying that the restructuring under way will result in the emergence of a “completely different entity”. Speaking at the tail-end of a heated debate on the electricity crisis in the National Assembly, Gordhan acknowledged that Eskom’s current predicament had its roots in a failure by the ANC-led government to react quickly enough to warnings of an impending power shortage, as well as its failure to implement the 1998 White Paper.
