President Cyril Ramaphosa has yet again acknowledged that the foremost challenge facing the country is the electricity crisis. He was replying to the debate on his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Cape Town on Thursday.
Ramaphosa has defended the appointment of the new Electricity Minister and sought to allay opposition fears that the post would create confusion in government.
The President says the ministry will be focused on coordinating the response to load shedding and will work in a cooperative way with other ministries including the Energy Minister.
Ramaphosa says the government is moving toward reducing the level of load shedding as soon as possible.
This includes eventually allowing people to use their rooftop solar panels to feed electricity back into the grid and be paid for that electricity.
SA not doing away with coal
The President says there is no way that the Khusile and Medupi power stations can be shut down, insisting that South Africa will not be doing away with coal as a source of generating power any time soon.
Ramaphosa says he has however assured the international community that the country is committed to an energy mix that includes cleaner sources of energy like solar and wind.
The President has urged the opposition to take note of the current reality that the overwhelming amount of electricity currently comes from coal-fired power stations.
“We need to dispel this idea that we are abandoning coal as a fuel source. We should all remember that coal fire power stations provide 80% of our energy source right now. And will therefore continue to provide the bulk of our bulk supply base load into the future. Even as people as international fora have asked me, I have said we have just built two mega power stations, Khusile and Medupi, that generate some 8 000 megawatts at great costs and there is just no way we are going to shut those two power stations down.”
