Cape Town – Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has defended the allocation of R30 billion to purchase diesel for power generation in order to prevent higher levels of load shedding in South Africa.
Ramokgopa argued that this decision was necessary to protect the country’s already struggling economy.
He highlighted that in the previous year, over 620 000 jobs were lost due to load shedding, and implementing higher stages of load shedding would lead to even more job losses, IOL reported.
Stage 6 load shedding was costing the country R1 billion per day, which was unsustainable.
Ramokgopa emphasised that spending R30 billion annually on diesel was justifiable when considering the economic risks associated with not doing so, such as further economic contraction, job losses, and threats to food security.
“Just to make the point that R30bn directed at burning diesel, you are quite correct that is an inexplicable amount of money to be used on diesel. But that number must be understood relative to the risks associated with not burning diesel. What do we know about not burning diesel? We know that Stage 6 load shedding can cost the country R1bn a day. Stage 6 for 2022 resulted in over 620,000 people losing jobs as a direct result of load shedding. The projections are that those numbers could go upwards of 800,000.
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“We know that farmers are finding it difficult to produce at a competitive level. The productivity is undermined. They were sharing with me that 24% of their production relies on quality and reliable energy supply,” said Ramokgopa.
The minister also said that the delay in importing 100MW of electricity from Mozambique to South Africa, a deal agreed upon in June, has been attributed to various factors.
These factors include a complicated transaction process, a lack of urgency from Eskom, and outstanding debt issues.
According to News24, the Mozambican government expressed frustration over Eskom’s slow progress in finalising the acquisition of this electricity to help combat load shedding in South Africa.
The addition of 100MW of electricity would increase South Africa’s electricity resources by 0.2%, which is approximately 10% of one load shedding stage.
“Mozambique did confirm 100MW can be made available immediately and 600MW by the end of December. So, at our level, we agreed that we had secured that. But even amid the crisis, you still have to respect and honour governance processes. So the contracting process had to take place. There was also a legacy issue with Eskom’s counterpart in Mozambique, which was owing them a significant amount of money. I am happy to report those matters have been resolved. Once Eskom contracting (is done), it will culminate in a board approval.
“We will do everything possible to chase after every megawatt because the aggregation will help us end load shedding,” the report quoted Ramokgopa as saying.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
