Mozambican power on the way to SA

South Africa’s Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says that a complicated transaction, a lack of urgency from Eskom, and outstanding debt has led to the delay in importing 100MW from Mozambique, a deal which was agreed way back in June.

Earlier this month, the Mozambican government said it was frustrated that there had been no progress from Eskom in finalising the acquisition of the electricity pledged to help alleviate load shedding.

Adding 100MW of electricity will increase South Africa’s electricity resources by 0.2% and amounts to approximately 10% of one load shedding stage. It was nevertheless important for Eskom to access every megawatt it could, said Ramokgopa.

Replying to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Ramokgopa said that "legacy debt issues" between Eskom and its Mozambican counterpart had been one stumbling block, while another had been the complexity of the contracting, which needed to factor in commodity price and currency risk.

Said Ramokgopa: Mozambique did confirm 100MW can be made available immediately and 600MW by the end of December. So, at our level, we agreed that we had secured that. But even amid the crisis, you still have to respect and honour governance processes. So the contracting process had to take place. There was also a legacy issue with Eskom’s counterpart in Mozambique, which was owing them a significant amount of money. I am happy to report those matters have been resolved. Once Eskom contracting is done, it will culminate in a board approval.

"We will do everything possible to chase after every megawatt because the aggregation will help us end load shedding," he added.

Ramokgopa said he agreed with opposition MPs that more urgency is required to address load shedding and that "in this instance, it appears this is not something (Eskom) has appreciated".-Fin24