ActionSA slams Eskom's R3.6 billion diesel spending in one month as 'costly cover-up' for failing grid
ActionSA demands accountability from Eskom and the Minister of Electricity, calling for honest reporting, real recovery plans, and an end to wasteful diesel spending disguised as energy progress.
Image: Timothy Barnard /Independent Newspapers
ActionSA has expressed concern over Eskom's R3.6 billion diesel spend in just 30 days, calling it an 'unaffordable illusion' used to mask South Africa's ongoing electricity crisis.
The party says government claims of ending load shedding are misleading, with diesel-powered emergency generation simply substituting blackouts rather than solving the core issues.
ActionSA Member of Parliament, Alan Beesley, said: 'South Africa hasn't ended load shedding – we've simply replaced it with an unaffordable illusion, paid for by the taxpayer.'
Beesley said that between April 1 and 10, 2025, alone, Eskom burned R1.34 billion in diesel. Yet, Eskom's Energy Availability Factor (EAF), the key metric for generation performance, sits at just 56.11 percent, well below the 70 percent target set by the Minister of Electricity.
This also reflects a decline from the same period last year, when the EAF was 58.96 percent. ActionSA says this proves there are fewer megawatts available now than a year ago, despite significantly higher spending.
'That is not a recovery – it is a cover-up with devastating fiscal consequences,'' Beesley warned.
According to Eskom's 2024 data, diesel-fired generation via Open-Cycle Gas Turbines costs R6,579 per megawatt-hour, compared to R541 for coal and just R113 for nuclear.
ActionSA argues that billions are being wasted to keep the grid afloat when those funds could have been used to restore failing coal infrastructure. If the same amount of electricity had been produced using coal, the cost would have been a fraction, closer to R300 million.
Beesley added: 'Eskom is burning billions, and the people of South Africa are being burned in the process.'
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That is, if I understand the premier correctly (yes, I know it's difficult), no more than 72 hours would elapse between the reporting of that pothole that's just opened up in your street and its successful closure – sorry, 'resolution', by pothole officials. A strategic error, I say, because I've been keeping an eye on most of the 47 potholes within a kilometre of my house and they're still there – whereas it's certainly more than 72 hours since the premier made that promise in his speech. Perhaps some time has to elapse before that promise becomes an instruction to the relevant civil servants, and then perhaps a mandatory period has to elapse before any action is taken? Perhaps Lesufi forgot to add 'And this will become law in a year's time,' or something like that? Timelines for instructions from above to be heard and acted upon by those below seem variable, but I'm sure if it doesn't happen, Lesufi can blame his coalition partners, or perhaps just the Democratic Alliance (DA), whose members are well-known subverters of any good idea the ANC comes up with. I mean, the DA has been complaining since the aforementioned State of the Province Address (or Sopa, which means 'candyfloss' in seven of South Africa's 12 official languages) that all the thousands of kitskonstabels (instant constables) hired by Lesufi to help curb crime in the province haven't helped. Not to mention the helicopters. There are helicopters? Lesufi bought helicopters for the kitskonstabels? And we thought it was only BMWs. Let's not go down that road, or at least not today. It is a road with too many potholes. And maybe that R28,000 wasted every 37 minutes pales next to some of the other numbers thrown up by the Auditor-General. Johannesburg, she said, had awarded more than R987-million to contractors 'with close ties to employees or councillors' of the city. That's what a journalist of the yellow press variety would call a pretty 'dodgy tender'. Okay, R987-million is a large amount of money and should probably be looked into – though the relevant officer of the city was already fingered in a dodgy tender case but has been cleared of Special Investigating Unit charges by a mysterious inner ANC process. Still, R987-million is a lot less than R2.8-billion. This is surely an incontrovertible fact, even to those expensive lawyers hired by the ANC to compose internal reports that the mayor can leave in his bottom drawer for a few decades. At least the Honourable Premier of Gauteng, Mr Lesufi, didn't object when the ActionSA motion calling for more oversight by MPLs was passed unanimously – so, by the 28 ANC members too. They obviously endorse the idea that, in Ngobeni's words, the 'motion responds directly to the executive's pattern of disregarding legitimate oversight interventions such as its failure to place the Emfuleni Municipality under mandatory administration despite sustained collapse'. 'Sustained collapse' may be oxymoronic, but never mind. ActionSA goes on, in a distinctly firm tone of voice: 'The unanimous support for these motions sends a clear message: accountability, transparency and basic service delivery are non-negotiable. 'We commend all political parties that voted in support [that's everyone, then], and we call on the Gauteng executive [that's Lesufi] to immediately act on the resolutions of the house.' Did you hear that, Mr Lesufi? You have 72 hours. DM Shaun de Waal is a writer and editor. This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
