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According to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, South Africa will need to add “a few thousand megawatts” of electricity to the system before loadshedding can be addressed.
This follows the Minister’s appearance before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
“Our aim certainly, is that loadshedding must end sooner rather than later. It will end…in particular when we have extra megawatts in the system.” Gordhan added that other issues, such as maintenance, must be addressed before the country can begin to see the end of loadshedding.
“All of these factors are causing an immense amount of frustration amongst our people…whether they are residents, whether they live in working class areas or middle-class areas and whether they are large or small businesses,” he said.
Additionally, Gordhan stated that the “crisis” at Eskom could be resolved through a collaborative effort by all stakeholders.
“What we require as government is an integrated response to this crisis. One which ensures that each role player does what is necessary and does it timeously and does it with the necessary sense of urgency in order to ensure that the work that needs to be done to stabilise Eskom can indeed take place.”
He stated that the SOE would be undergoing a period of transition for some time. “Currently, we’ve got to repair what we’ve got to repair. Secondly, we have the restructuring or unbundling process and thirdly, we’ve also got to introduce the changes that are required in terms of the just energy transition and implement the nationally determined contribution that South Africa put on the table at COP 26.
That will have an impact both in respect of pollutants but carbon emissions more generally,” concluded the Minister.
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