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'I don't build power stations': Mantashe doubles down on claim he's not to blame for loadshedding

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'I don't build power stations': Mantashe doubles down on claim he's not to blame for loadshedding

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe
Photo by Donna Slater
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe

19th January 2023

By: News24Wire

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Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe is adamant that he is not to blame for continued loadshedding – even though his department oversees the procurement of generation capacity and not a single megawatt has been connected to the grid during his tenure.

In a wide-ranging interview with News24 on Tuesday, Mantashe, who is also African National Congress (ANC) chairperson, not only continued to distance himself and his department from the crisis but doubled down on his comments that effectively accused outgoing Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter and staff at the power utility of treason.

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He also made further potentially misleading claims that Eskom was allowing generation capacity to "stand idle" when it is in fact broken and in need of costly and time-consuming repairs, which may not be financially viable.

He told News24 that he was not lying by saying the capacity was idle because the units were not decommissioned but needed to be serviced and maintained.

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News24 reported that nearly 59% of Eskom’s baseload generation capacity was offline last week, prompting the implementation of stage 6 loadshedding as funds for diesel also ran out.

The utility has since secured another 50-million litres of diesel used at its Open Cycle Gas Turbines that burn diesel at high rates and alleviate the worst levels of loadshedding.

Environmental regulations will also force Eskom to shut down 13 000 megawatts of coal fired power stations by 2035 – and the utility is currently embroiled in a dispute with the environmental affairs department over capacity that was supposed to have been shut down already in April 2022.

Mantashe defended his record by pointing out that deals have been approved for around 6 700 megawatts – 3 200MW of which could not be approved immediately due to grid access problems, he claimed.

"Now, I always accuse some of the people of always looking for Bantu to blame, the Bantu to blame and criticise," he said in response to whether he had advocated for the R131-billion in funding from foreign nations to be used to upgrade the grid – which had been Eskom’s proposal from the start – that would alleviate the grid access challenges.

Mantashe instead equated the R131-billion COP funding as being too low a price to "sell" the coal mining industry that had a turnover of R130-billion in 2021.

The use of COP funding will not have the impact of destroying the coal industry – which is benefitting from higher export levels to Europe as it struggles to meet energy shortfalls created by Russia cutting off gas supply.

Mantashe however, has pointed out that European countries are increasing reliance on coal, and said South Africa needed to "free itself from encirclement" and "jumping" every time Europe talks.

He brushed off criticism that he and his department had not acted fast enough to assist in alleviating the current crisis by heeding calls from business to open bid windows faster.  

This while he repeated his claims that Eskom, in not resolving loadshedding, was "pitting society against the ruling party" and lashed out at "liberal analysts and journalists", whom, he claimed, wrote "rubbish" in the media.

"I don’t know what is slow because I don’t build power stations," Mantashe said.

"I don’t build facilities for [independent power producers (IPP)] now [to say] slowness… it almost assumes that if I approve a bid window, I must go and build that facility myself."

He said he was becoming used to being "an object of abuse".

"The responsibility of the minister of energy is not to connect megawatts to the grid. I am stating that as a fact," Mantashe said. He said under him, the department had approved more renewable IPP projects than had been approved between 2011 and 2018, roughly 6 700MW, of which only 3 853MW will move ahead and another 3 200MW in limbo over grid access problems.

He said the department would "soon" open up bid window seven for an additional 5 000MW.

"My responsibility is to approve, if there is a bid window five for 2 853 megawatts, I approve it. And 1 759[MW] is under construction… Renewables, leave the story that if we get renewables now we will have no loadshedding.

When you get a contract to build a renewable energy facility, there is a lead time to build it. In the public debate, that lead time to build it is not taken into account," he said.

Mantashe was urged in the past to open bid windows faster and was forced by President Cyril Ramaphosa to lift the embedded generation cap - but he indicated scepticism over ideas that the private sector would take on more power generation projects to ease the impact of Eskom on business - there has been no flood of projects, he claimed. 

Mantashe denied that his comments last year that Eskom was "agitating for the overthrow of the state", were an accusation of treason, positioning them as factual statements based on examples from other countries, such as Sri Lanka.

"Now see that's, that's a problem of a journalist who wants to treat himself as a court. So, raise your right hand and say, 'So help me God,'" Mantashe said when asked if he had any evidence that Eskom staff had acted treasonously in not fixing loadshedding.

"If you have stage 6 loadshedding, and whether you do that deliberately or not, you are pitting society against the state. In any other country there would be an uprising… We are lucky that there is no uprising here," he said.

"And I can tell you now, if this thing persists, [if it can’t] be addressed… it is going to be a major factor in the 2024 elections. And I know that many of the supporters of some opposition parties wish that it persists because it will give them power," he added.

"All I'm saying is that if you allow stage 6 loadshedding to continue, you are pitting society against the state… and therefore, you [are] agitating for the overthrow of the state," he said.

The comments made last year for the first time prompted De Ruyter to resign after three years as Eskom boss.

The first weeks of 2023 have also shown a marked shift in ANC members' rhetoric over loadshedding – with ANC MP’s reportedly accusing Eskom of "sabotaging" the state during a meeting this week – apparently echoing Mantashe’s statements from last year, and more recent statements by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, who respectively claimed loadshedding was "like an oppositional attack on SA.com" and that various crises at Eskom were "inexplicable".

Mantashe did, however, accept that the ANC had some responsibility for the state of Eskom.

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa confirmed that the ANC had resolved at its national elective conference in December that Eskom should reside under Mantashe’s portfolio as mineral resources and energy minister.

"I can tell you now, Eskom has not been given to me by the president… But I was part of the conference. I know the feeling of delegates of the ANC.

"I've also noticed that there is an agitated… let me describe it as liberal analysts and journalists against that. So that puts the president in a very awkward situation because he must choose between the liberals and the delegates of the ANC," Mantashe said. 

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