<\/p>\n
Deputy President Paul Mashatile has reiterated that government would procure emergency power to mitigate the impact of load shedding.<\/p>\n
He said this would include the use of power ships.<\/p>\n
Transport Minister Sindi Chikunga has already approved that Karpowerships can dock in Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay and Ngqura in the Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n
Mashatile, who was visiting East London on Saturday, said officials would not decommission power stations.<\/p>\n
He said they will not transition in the dark and it was their intention to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n
Mashatile said South Africa must not be rushed to transition from coal to clean energy, saying that it would happen, but this would be done at their own pace.<\/p>\n
Mashatile admitted that load shedding has had a huge impact on households, businesses and the economy.<\/p>\n
But government was not folding its arms as it wanted to procure emergency power.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to mention a few things we are doing, we are going to procure emergency power. That decision has been taken. It\u2019s something similar to something that Mr Gwede Mantashe tried before and somebody fought him. I can\u2019t remember who. But somebody fought him. We have gone back, we have said to him go back there we support you. We are busy procuring. Don\u2019t be surprised when you see some ship not far from here. We think we should do that because we need to keep the lights on,\u201d said Mashatile.<\/p>\n
Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and President Cyril Ramaphosa have said they would not decommission coal-fired power stations.<\/p>\n
Mashatile said they will implement the Just Energy Transition, but this will be done at South Africa\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will use our coal and let me qualify what I mean by that. We have coal-fired power stations. When we transit to clean energy, the Just Energy Transition, people say we must close down our power stations. We don\u2019t have a problem with that, but we are not going to close them now. We are going to close them slowly. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are going to do. We are going to check this gives us megawatts, whether it\u2019s 1 000MW, we keep it. If it needs to be fixed, we fix it so that we get the necessary electricity we need to power our economy. Not that we are resisting to go where everybody is going. I said when I was addressing businesspeople on Friday last week, we can\u2019t be expected to transition in the dark. We can\u2019t do that,\u201d said Mashatile.<\/p>\n
He said this is the way that South Africa will move away from coal to clean energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President said we will do this at our own pace, taking into account our own interests. What are our interests? To ensure that we have enough energy for our people,\u201d said Mashatile.<\/p>\n
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za<\/p>\n
Current Affairs<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deputy President Paul Mashatile has reiterated that government would procure emergency power to mitigate the impact of load shedding. He said this would include the use of power ships. Transport Minister Sindi Chikunga has already approved that Karpowerships can dock in Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay and Ngqura in the Eastern Cape. Mashatile, who was visiting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[11074,11516,11867,13281,1718,12827,7385,11517],"class_list":["post-180656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-emergency","tag-load","tag-mashatile","tag-mitigate","tag-power","tag-procurement","tag-promises","tag-shedding"],"yoast_head":"\n