Cape Town – As Eskom continues rolling blackouts, the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness spent R21.8 million on diesel fuel supplies between April and June.
This was revealed by MEC Dr Nomafrench Mbombo when she was responding to questions from DA MPP Wendy Kaizer-Philander.
The R21.8 million was spent during the time Eskom announced the shocking news that they would be implementing stage 6.
The power utility blamed the unlawful and unprotected labour action, for causing widespread disruption to Eskom’s power plants.
Dr Mbombo said 249 facilities are equipped with either generators or uninterrupted power supply devices.
“UPS backup is supplied to theatres for continued operations,” she said. In ensuring that the facilities are sufficiently capacitated against blackouts, she said her department pays its utility bills within 30 days.
The information contained in her response also showed that over the past eight financial years, they have thus far spent R57 million on installations with annual maintenance costs averaging R2.4 million.
She also revealed that they are currently formulating a backup rollout plan for priority primary healthcare facilities and other facilities as well. “It is furthermore required to work with the Department of the Premier in terms of their rollout plan for UPSs to ensure that duplication of effort is not taking place. The strategy requires feasibility study of proposed systems to be introduced, availability of required components within South Africa and affordability of installation.”
Today Eskom announced that a sudden outage of three Kendal power station units had forced them to implement stage 4 blackouts starting at 10 am until Thursday. No further details were made available.
Kaizer-Philander said the resumption of blackouts over the weekend poses a serious risk to service delivery, especially that in the healthcare sector.
“In hospitals and other facilities, there are various instruments that are sensitive to operational changes and cannot be switched on or off as one does with a light bulb. These pieces of equipment require a constant supply of electricity in order to be functional and there are many lives which quite literally depend on them.”
She added that despite these circumstances, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) still has chosen to not exempt health care facilities from rolling blackouts.
“This is not only concerning, but exposes the national government’s priorities, or rather the lack thereof. It is shocking that the delivery of quality services in our province has to be threatened by a national government that is unable to ensure a stable supply of electricity.”