The Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power stations are "completely" factored into South Africa's long-term aspirations to begin reducing its relative carbon emissions and there should, thus, be no impediment to the approval of a $3,75-billion World Bank loan to Eskom, government said on Friday.

In a media briefing addressed jointly by Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan and Energy Minister Dipuo Peters, opposition to the loan was based on incorrect assumptions about the loan, and its conditions, as well as the country's climate mitigation commitments.

Hogan stressed that the coal investments remained aligned to South Africa's aspiration to peak its carbon emissions by 2025 and begin reducing these by 2035.

Peters, meanwhile, indicated that South Africa's future energy mix would lean more heavily on renewables, as well as base-load nuclear power.