President Jacob Zuma must explain why he instructed Eskom's chairperson to launch an inquiry into the utility's performance, which led to the suspension of top executives, DA leader Helen Zille said on Thursday.

"The president's personal intervention begs the question – what could his motives have been?" she said in a statement.

The answer perhaps lay in the fact that the suspensions "followed shortly after the Eskom executive's attempts to appoint an audit committee to oversee procurement processes for major contracts".

Zille said industry insiders believed this move "may have upset political interests benefiting from lucrative diesel and coal supply deals".

She called on Zuma to explain exactly who's interests he was protecting by intervening at Eskom.

A fortnight ago, Eskom suspended four of its top executives, with chairperson Zola Tsotsi announcing at the time that the parastatal's poor performance would be investigated.

Business Day reported on Thursday that Zuma was directly involved in advocating the controversial inquiry into Eskom, initiated by Tsotsi two weeks ago.

The newspaper said individuals with direct knowledge of events had said that in the days preceding the board meeting at which the decision was taken, Zuma had contacted public enterprises acting director general Matsietsi Mokholo suggesting that the department support the idea of an inquiry.

The Democratic Alliance on Thursday launched a position paper on ways to solve South Africa's electricity crisis.

The document outlines several interventions, including bringing an end to Eskom's monopoly on power production.

Zille said her party believed management of the grid needed to be taken away from Eskom and placed under an independent State-owned entity.

"This will enable IPPs [independent power producers] to compete with Eskom on a level playing field for supply of electricity to the grid.

"A necessary first step in this process is the passing of the Independent System Market Operator (ISMO) Bill."

The opposition paper also calls for the Integrated Resource Plan to be updated, and the Gas Utilisation Master Plan (GUMP) to be published.

"There is immense potential for gas turbines to be brought on stream within a few years. Policy certainty is urgently needed, however, through the publishing of GUMP, which will provide clarity to the market on South Africa's contemplated investments in the gas sector over a 30-year period."

Among other things, it also calls for the completion of the Medupi and Kusile power stations to be fast-tracked.

"The completion of these projects is a national priority and must be backed by a similar approach to the 2010 World Cup infrastructure needs."