Insinuating that the record reprieve from load-shedding has something to do with the elections is an insult to the work and strides made by his department and Eskom, says electricity minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

Ramokgopa was speaking at a business breakfast with captains of industry in Durban on Friday.

At the breakfast, many businesses applauded the minister for the pause in load-shedding and the uninterrupted electricity supply the country has experienced for more than 50 days.

Some, however, questioned whether the lights will remain on even after the elections on May 29.

MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Edtea) Siboniso Duma applauded Ramokgopa for his bold leadership. “As of today, May 17, South Africa has gone 52 days without experiencing load-shedding.”

“This is by far the longest period the country has been without load-shedding for over two years. We must give our minister and the team at Eskom a round of applause.”

Ramakgopa said when he was appointed as electricity minister, his mandate was not to fix Eskom, but to fix the energy crisis, which meant project managing Eskom and its power stations.

“When I came into this position there were six problem power stations and I decided it was important to focus on fixing those to alleviate the energy constraints we had,” he said.

“I am happy to announce that three of those stations have graduated from being problems and are now functioning exceptionally well. However, it is important to note that we are not out of the woods yet.”

Responding to remarks that the absence of load-shedding was linked to the elections, Ramakgopa said the electricity the country is enjoying was a result of all the planning that had been put in place to ensure that the grid was not overburdened.

“At any given opportunity we clarify to the public the work that we are doing; let’s look at the logic of the idea that, if a government wants to win an election they wouldn’t have had load shedding in the first place.”

“Load-shedding is crippling many industries and taking away many jobs, so [the idea that] the government designed load-shedding so that closer to elections it can end it — that is the most illogical thing I have ever heard,” he said.