The African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Paul Mashatile says South Africa should not rush to transition from coal to renewable energy sources to produce electricity.
He was speaking at an ANC fundraising dinner at the Mbombela stadium in Mpumalanga.
Approximately 80% of the country’s coal comes from the province. Mashatile says the ANC-led government is reviewing some of its energy decisions.
“We went back to the drawing board and said well look firstly we are committed to the just transition. We are committed to clean energy but we need to move at a pace that does not create problems for our communities. So we are revising our schedule to make sure that the move away from coal is not done abruptly.
“We have realised that other countries like Russia and China have introduced technologies that reduce emissions. So they still use coal without putting more emissions into the atmosphere.”
