Construction on the Medupi and Kusile power stations will go ahead as the cost of halting the projects will not benefit the economy, the Chairperson of the Eskom board Jabu Mabuza has said.Mabuza was speaking at a media briefing on the state of SA's power supply on Wednesday along with other Eskom executives and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Mabuza said questions had been raised on whether it would be feasible to stop construction on the multi-billion rand coal plants now or to continue the process until completion.“We have done the exercise and have concluded that the costs of not continuing is not going to be met by the benefit of continuing,” said Mabuza.
“Given that they are at a point where they are almost complete… it would cost around R18bn each to complete,” he said.Mabuza said that should they not complete the projects, it was estimated that an additional cost of more or less R8bn would be incurred in contractual, legal costs and penalties.He said this could take between 60 and 66 months.
Fin24 Eskom: Of course Medupi & Kusile won't be halted: There's more money to be squeezed out of SATaxpayers and besides, where else will the ANC place its unqualified, incompetent cadres, who want highly-paid jobs for life!
Fin24 The headline has omitted the part where the tax payer is to foot this bill.