Pravin Gordhan: SA must settle for significant load shedding for rest of 2023
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said the country will have to settle for load shedding of a ‘significant order,’ at least until the end of the year.
Delivering his budget address for his department in the National Assembly (NA), the minister said new capacity’s urgently needed, and the grid needed to be extended.
During the debate, Gordhan was slammed by opposition parties for the protracted problems of state-owned entities, saying he was overseeing a department of perennial failure.
Gordhan said the government’s R254 billion debt relief over the next three years would help Eskom to achieve its strategic objectives of improving energy supply.
This includes extending the life of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and getting the Kusile and Medupi power stations fully operational.
But for ordinary citizens, there’s no light, just yet.
“We now know that we have to, as the population and the economy, settle for load shedding of a significant order until the end of the year, at least.”
Gordhan said it remained Eskom’s target to improve the country’s energy availability factor to 70% by March 2024.
“Determined efforts are being made by the government to ensure the recovery of the generation capacity of Eskom must be complemented by the introduction of new capacity to end load shedding.”
Gordhan said adding green energy sources to the grid remained a priority for the embattled power utility.
-EWN
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