Ramokgopa briefs cabinet on plans to end load-shedding by December

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday convened a special cabinet meeting at which electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa tabled his plans to end load-shedding.

They include, among others, a proposal to extend the life of several coal-fired power stations that were nearing their end of life.

It understood that the cabinet meeting was also scheduled to debate the issue of Ramokgopa’s legislative powers which have, according to insiders, delayed the full establishment of his ministry.

These are the plans Ramokgopa first presented at the ANC national working committee (NWC) meeting held in Limpopo on Monday.

Cabinet insiders said they were confident the meeting would approve Ramokgopa’s plans to delay the decommission of coal power stations to reduce higher stages of load-shedding.

This, one of the insiders said, was a critical factor in Ramokgopa’s plan which included ensuring the country never went beyond load-shedding stage 3 by September.

In his plan, the insider continued, Ramokgopa believes extending the life of some of the coal-fired power stations could see the country completely ending load-shedding by December.

“Sputla [Ramokgopa] is trying to make sure that by September we reduce load-shedding to maximum stage 3, that’s why he’s pushing for all these things. And by December he thinks it’s possible to eradicate load-shedding,” said an insider.

Another insider, however, said they were expecting a pushback from those who believe the coal-fired stations should be phased out and replaced by renewable energy sources.

This insider further explained why Ramokgopa needed his legislative powers clarified as a matter of urgency: “It will be strange if Ramokgopa says we need to invest in refurbishing power stations, but he doesn’t have the power to tell the Eskom board to reprioritise the budget. That power sits with Pravin Gordhan. That cannot work. And then you give the responsibility to deliver on load-shedding but what if Pravin says, like he does, ‘look, I’m a greenist. I’m not going to allow refurbishment.”

This was why the cabinet was likely to push for the process to proclaim Ramokgopa's powers to be expedited.

“His job is to make sure we eradicate load-shedding. So he says you can’t decommission this one because when you decommission and bring renewables less power will be delivered. Rather extend its life, which means refurbishing. That is part of delivering the energy mix,” the insider said.

“It’s what Gwede [Mantashe] has been saying all along. South Africa has an energy mix that includes coal. Even by 2050, coal will be part of our energy sources. Because even Germany, which is very big on renewables, still has coal, so they didn’t decommission. Even the UK, didn’t decommission everything out of coal. South Africa is not going to decommission everything out of coal. We have an energy mix to 2030, an energy mix to 2050, it’s already approved.”

Cabinet spokesperson Michael Currin confirmed the special cabinet meeting.

“The meeting discussed short-term and medium-term measures to ensure energy security, taking into account our immediate energy needs,” he said.

“Cabinet noted the presentation by minister Ramokgopa and directed that a further assessment of the electricity situation and measures to be taken be addressed at the next NECOM meeting that will be convened as speedily as possible.”

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