Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says that discussions at the ANC’s sixth-policy conference at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, are in line with the solutions recently presented by President Cyril Ramaphosa, aimed at solving the country’s energy crisis.
Rolling power cuts were recently escalated to stage six by Eskom.
The power utility said at the time that the blackouts were caused by the unprotected strike by its workers.
Gordhan was speaking on the sidelines of the conference, “In time, I think our responsibility is to explain to the South African public, but also to the ANC membership, what each of these elements mean in detail, how it will actually ensure energy security for South African industry, for South African businesses and for South African households. And there will always be nay sayers of one kind or another, they’re an absolute minority. I think the rest want the country to work, they want investment in this country, they want businesses to work and they want the energy situation to stabilise.”
ANC will spend time finding solutions to Eskom’s debt
On Friday, ANC President Ramaphosa said the governing party will spend a great deal of time finding practical solutions for Eskom’s debt crisis.
The government has enlisted the private sector in an emergency plan to tackle the worst-ever rolling blackouts in Africa’s most industrialised economy.
The President has announced the scrapping of controls on companies generating their own power as well as plans to allow households to generate solar power and sell it back into the grid.
Ramaphosa said on Monday that a wave of new private generation was needed to rescue the country’s grid. He conceded that the rolling blackouts have caused immense damage to the economy. Ramaphosa says the revival of renewable energy and lifting of the threshold for licensing will increase electricity supply.
