South Africa will be getting an energy generating company outside of Eskom.
This was the promise from Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources, during the opening address of the annual Investing in African Mining Indaba that kicked off in Cape Town today (Monday).
According to Mantashe talks with investors are already under way for government’s plan to establish a new electricity generating company.
This comes as ongoing issues at Eskom continue to affect the economy, with growing concern over the long-term impact of the power utility on investor confidence.
“We are talking to investors and we will talk to them and go everywhere we can to get them to start an energy generating company outside of Eskom,” said Mantashe. “This is a security measure as Eskom is grappling with problems and we will have a failsafe solution. We must start generating energy to get back to the comfortable days where we had an energy surplus.”
He said introducing competition into the energy sector was a key part of the strategy.
“Competition is the only way we will see the price of electricity pushed down. Loadshedding is a problem, but a bigger problem is the price of electricity. If electricity is expensive, then the economy is de-industrialising.”
He said government had already gone to the market to find innovative power solutions to deliver power to the grid as expediently as possible.
“Economic growth requires a stable, cost-efficient energy supply. We have to address our energy challenges urgently,” he concluded
