Madam Deputy Speaker, the ID is extremely concerned about the critical electricity supply situation in South Africa. According to Eskom, the country could be exposed to load shedding as early as April this year.
It is totally unacceptable that South Africans have been placed in this crisis due to a combination of poor planning, conflicts of interest and instances of gross incompetence at Eskom. Last year, an entirely avoidable accident at Duvha Power Station saw 600 megawatts removed from the grid at a cost of over R2 billion. We are still waiting for the independent report to be submitted to Parliament on how such an occurrence could happen at a professionally run power utility.
It is also shocking that the completion of the Medupi Power Station has been delayed even further due to a problem with the boiler contract. This R39-billion contract was awarded to Hitachi Power Africa in which, just coincidently, the ANC's funding arm, Chancellor House, has a 25% shareholding. This massive conflict of interest has now threatened our country's energy security and could have a devastating impact on our economy.
Will the ANC now do the right thing and disinvest Chancellor House from Hitachi Power Africa and also give this country the assurance that their funding arm will not invest in any company that could benefit from the country's proposed infrastructure build programme? I thank you.