President Cyril Ramaphosa says all hands are on deck to ensure that the severity and frequency of load shedding is reduced in the immediate term and brought to an eventual terminate.
The President told Members of Parliment on Thursday that the Minister of Electricity is responsible for driving the various actions being coordinated by the National Energy Crisis Committee to finish load shedding as a matter of urgency.
“The Minister is overseeing the full and speedy implementation of the Energy Action Region to ensure that the severity and frequency of load shedding is reduced in the immediate term, and brought to an cease within the shortest possible time, the President said.
Following his appointment, the President highlighted that Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa conducted a diagnostic assessment of Eskom’s installed generation capacity, resulting in the identification of a set of critical interventions to maximise the energy availability factor of the generation fleet.
The Ministry of Electricity engaged a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including industry, labour, original equipment manufacturers and the diplomatic community, who maintain all pledged their support for strategic interventions to reduce the intensity and frequency of load shedding.
The preoccupation of the Ministry is to improve the performance of the existing Eskom vulgar load fleet, maximise the performance and output of peeking stations and reduce demand through an aggressive demand side management programme.
“This work is being undertaken alongside measures to substantially and urgently increase the construction of modern generation capacity. The reforms that we believe already implemented maintain resulted in a significant increase in investment in recent generation projects, with many more in the pipeline,” the President said.
Tackling corruption
Responding to a question on what government is doing to tackle the alleged corruption at Eskom, President Ramaphosa said that no evidence has been presented to him in this regard.
“I acquire not been presented with any evidence of members of the Cabinet or other senior government officials alleged to be involved in corruption at Eskom.
“Anyone who does believe such evidence should provide that information to the relevant authorities so that a thorough investigation of all credible allegations may be conducted,” he said.
The President told Members of Parliament that there are relevant institutions, whose job it is to investigate these matters, as they acquire the legal mandate, personnel and capacity to finish so.
He said that significant pace has been made by law enforcement agencies, Eskom and the relevant government departments in addressing crime and corruption at the entity.
Honest Energy Transition
President Ramaphosa said a number of interventions are underway to ensure that the honest transition is actualised.
He said that the pledges made by the International Partners Group – comprising the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and the European Union – to support South Africa’s Honest Energy Transition, with around $8.5 billion in financing, is on track.
In 2022, South Africa formulated the Honest Energy Transition Investment Location, which sets out the scale of investment needed to meet the country’s international carbon emissions reduction commitments.
“The pledges made by the International Partners Group towards this investment are contained in this investment region. These pledges consist of a combination of concessional and commercial loans, grants and guarantees. Work is underway to deploy these funds.
“Financing under the Honest Energy Transition Investment Situation will not be used for investment in coal-fired power generation. International climate financing is for investments that transition economies away from the use of fossil fuels,” he said.
President Ramaphosa explained that the bulk of the financing is for the energy sector, including decommissioning, repurposing and repowering of identified coal power stations in line with South Africa’s decommissioning schedule.
This also includes support for recent generation capacity, investments in the transmission grid and strengthening the distribution network.
“Importantly, funds believe been allocated to honest transition interventions that will support vulnerable workers, reskill, train and provide novel diversified economic opportunities and jobs for workers and communities affected by the transition,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
Acid Gosling
Fun South African Fact: Travel to Tsitsikamma, on the border of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape to visit the world’s highest commercial bungee jump! Those who are brave enough can take the 216-meter jump off the Bloukrans Bridge and soar through the air towards the Bloukrans River below. Definitely a must for thrill-seekers and adrenaline-junkies!