The People in Power

Who are the main players in South Africa's Power Crisis? We look at who is responsible - now and then - for the extreme shortage of electricity in the country.

Thabo Mbeki
"When Eskom said to the government: 'We think we must invest more in terms of electricity generation'... We said not now, later. We were wrong. Eskom was right. We were wrong."

Thabo Mbeki has been president of South Africa since 1999. He has admitted that Eskom did inform government about an impending electricity shortage years ago, but that the utility was told not build more power stations. Mbeki acknowledges now that this was a mistake.

President Mbeki has also publicly apologised for the power cuts that have plagued the country and have cost millions of rands in lost revenue due to mines and crucial industries shutting down.

Opposition parties have called on President Mbeki to fire those responsible for the current energy crisis. He has been criticised for not holding anyone accountable, considering that warnings of impending disaster came as early as 1998.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

"Maybe we were pessimists who did not believe in our economic growth."

The current deputy president was the Minister of Minerals and Energy from June 1999 to June 2005.

In 2003 Mlambo-Ngcuka said there was no looming power crisis. She said then-Eskom CEO Thulani Gcabashe assured her SA would never run out of power. Late in January, Mlambo-Ngcuka admitted that government had got it wrong and apologised to SA for numerous blackouts.

She became deputy president of the country in 2005 after Jacob Zuma was axed.

There have been calls for Mlambo-Ngcuka's resignation, with opposition parties saying she failed to heed the warnings by Eskom and that she too is to blame for SA's current power crisis.

Jeff Radebe

Radebe became Minister of Public Works in 1994 and from 1999 to 2004, he was Minister of Public Enterprises.

It is claimed that during his time as Public Enterprises Minister, he failed to approve Eskom's proposals to start building new power plants.

According to the media, five urgent memos landed on his desk during crucial loadshedding some time ago, begging him for a decision. Radebe's theory was that new international roleplayers would emerge, providing competition to Eskom. It has now been accepted that this did not materialise.

Alec Erwin
"The decision to charge Eskom with the responsibility to embark on a large and urgent build programme in 2004 was in hindsight, late. The president has accepted that this government got its timing wrong."

He is the current Minister of Public Enterprises. Before that, he filled the position of Minister of Trade and Industry from 1996 to 2004. A high-ranking member of Cosatu for many years, Erwin is credited as being a central figure in economic policy formulation. He has a long track record of working with unions and has been credited with helping to bring about the ANC's Reconstruction and Development Programme.

Alec Erwin has come under harsh criticism for the way in which he has handled the country's latest electricity crisis. He was also slammed for his comments following the December 2005 outages at Koeberg power station. At the time, he claimed a bolt which damaged a generator was put there through "sabotage". Later he denied using the word and said he referred to the act of interfering with electrical installations as being sabotage.

Opposition parties have called for his resignation, saying he should be held responsible for the electricity crisis. Amid fingerpointing at Parliament recently, he said focus should be placed on finding solutions rather than "sacrificial lambs".

Thulani Gcabashe

Thulani Gcabashe joined Eskom in 1993 and became the CEO of Eskom Holdings and chairman of Eskom Enterprises. He was also a board member of Standard Bank and a trustee of the BusinessMap Foundation SA.

He was key in transforming Eskom into a company rather than a statutory body and was in charge of several multi-billion rand developments.

He led Eskom's African expansion and helped develop the Inga hydropower project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gcabashe started out as a town planner and has an MA in urban and regional planning as well as numerous management qualifications.

Jacob Maroga

"Winter 2008 is going to be more challenging than winter 2007."

Jacob Maroga was chosen from 270 candidates to succeed Gcabashe in 2007. Formerly the MD of Eskom's transmission business, Maroga's wide experience and degree in electrical engineering were welcomed by the industry.

His appointment came at a time when Eskom's challenges were becoming increasingly apparent. Loadshedding and problems at Koeberg, SA's only nuclear power station, came amid the first reports in the media that SA was facing a major electricity crisis.

Maroga told Cabinet that a shortage of coal was one of Eskom's biggest problems as well as the routine maintenance of power stations, breakdowns at other plants and unexpectedly faster economic growth.

Buyelwa Sonjica

"Go to sleep earlier so that you can grow and be cleverer. Boil less water".

Buyelwa Sonjica was appointed Energy and Minerals Minister in May 2006. Before that, she was the Minster for Water Affairs and Forestry.

On Wednesday January 30 2008, she told Cabinet that she wanted South Africans to go to bed earlier to help save power. Her comments were widely slated and she was also criticised for her initial silence as load shedding was paralysing SA homes and businesses from late 2007 to early 2008.

In February 2007 Sonjica told an international conference that access to electricity had increased from about 30% in 1994 to 73% in 2005. The country wanted to reach "universal access to electricity by 2012. She said about 3.4m households still had no power.

She said there was an over-reliance on coal and that government was investing in new national electricity generation capacity. But in 2008 it was acknowledged that government had planned poorly for electricity usage in the future. There have been calls for Sonjica to be held responsible for the current crisis.

Penuell Maduna

Former Justice Minister Penuell Maduna's name has also come up in discussions on SA's current power crisis.

Maduna was the Minister of Energy and Minerals in 1998 when the white paper was presented, which proposed that the state sell 30% of Eskom's energy generation to private contractors.

This attempt at deregulation was meant to introduce competition into the market, but it never took root. Government subsequently banned Eskom from building any further power stations, despite Eskom's clamouring that SA was running out of electricity.

Take me back to News24's Power Crisis Special Report...