Mantashe, Eskom at loggerheads over emergency power

Mineral resources & energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said Eskom is delaying emergency power projects that would have started generating 2GW of electricity by next August, City Press reported.

The state-owned utility hasn’t approved 11 generation projects that are intended to provide power supplies when the national grid is vulnerable, the newspaper reported, citing the minister. Mantashe said Eskom informed him in writing that it “would not sign the agreement with these emergency electricity suppliers”.

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter denied stalling the projects, saying that a final agreement hasn’t been presented to the utility, according to the newspaper.

South Africa has experienced record outages this year, stifling growth in the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest contraction in more than two decades.  — (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP