First, with respect, the assumptions or statements attributed to the Minister in the preamble to the question are a mis-representation of fact and or any comments that were made. In respect of Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF), what was reported is that over a period of time, using the average May 2023 UCLF (17369 MW) as a baseline, unplanned outages averaged 15510 MW for September 2023. There was also no “intentional delay of scheduled maintenance” in fact, for Month of September 2023, planned maintenance improved to 4874 MW (compared to the May 2023 Baseline of 3120 MW.
As codified in the summer 2023 outlook, Eskom remained committed to increase the available generation, with a specific focus over the summer period, by: