The Kusile and Medupi power stations, which are key to the country’s power security, have been hit by massive delays and cost overruns in recent years.

CAPE TOWN - The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) will this week conduct oversight visits to the troubled Kusile and Medupi power stations.

Parliament's public finance watchdog is also scheduled to meet with Eskom’s board and executive management after the oversight visits.

The Kusile and Medupi power stations, which are key to the country’s power security, have been hit by massive delays and cost overruns in recent years.

The power plants are expected to cost R18 billion each.

The committee said it had noted that a major contributing cause of the current outages was the poor performance of Eskom’s two new power stations, Medupi and Kusile, which were intended to come on-stream with additional capacity and provide a buffer for Eskom’s existing coal fleet.

Scopa says it has been concerned about Eskom’s performance for the past few years. The committee said that the entity had received qualified audits two years running and during that time, incurred a loss of R2.3 billion and R19.6 billion in irregular expenditure.

The site visits will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday and will culminate with a meeting with the Eskom board and executives on Thursday.