Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe.
- The ANC’s national chairman, Gwede Mantashe, has claimed that talks are taking place within the ANC to prevent him from taking over the management of the Eskom electric power company.
- He said the plan now was to split the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy into two separate entities and place a pro-renewables minister at the helm of the entity that will take over Eskom.
- Mantashe said that such a move was meant to appease the liberals at the expense of deepening the crisis.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe believes there is a calculated plan in place to ensure that ailing energy company Eskom does not fall into his custody.
He made the revelations while addressing the ANC’s ninth Free State elective conference on Saturday.
Using the opportunity to take a jab at his own party’s national executive committee, Mantashe said the move was meant to appease liberals who want the country to cut carbon emissions at the expense of citizens who must wallow in the dark and other challenges created by not having electricity.
Mantashe said internally that the ANC was now trying to work around its own conference resolution which said that Eskom should now come under the custodianship of its mineral resources and energy ministry.
This, according to Mantashe, visibly aggrieved, would be done by dividing the department into two: mineral resources and a separate entity that oversees energy.
“Within the ANC there is a new debate that says that energy and mining must be divided. They’ll shut off the power in my apartment. [of mineral resources and energy] then say they are bringing Eskom to power in terms of the ANC conference resolution,” Mantashe said.
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He added that such a decision was being made to “appease both parties”: those who demand the reduction of carbon emissions, while ensuring that the resolutions of the national conference will be fulfilled in the process.
Mantashe reiterated that an individual who is a “novice [supporter of green energy]Then, ” would be placed to oversee this new, independent Department of Energy.
“What they’re going to do: take a person who favors the greens [green energy] and ask it to run the power, but this will not solve the load disconnection crisis,” the minister said.
He described those calling for the switch to green energy as “succumb to the pressure to reduce carbon consumption and go for the use of renewable energy”.
“It is not our enemies who are asking for this, it is ourselves,” Mantashe said.
He said that those like him who were calling on Eskom to upgrade its own generating capacity by upgrading the current capacity of coal-fired power plants were seen as “rebels”, while all they wanted to do was make sure that NEC meet your key priorities for 2023. which are to accelerate and solve the energy crisis and load shedding
The minister also lamented what he described as a witch hunt against him, saying the ANC’s elective conference saw in its wisdom that Eskom should move to power, however now “the debate is shifting from Eskom to attacking Gwede Mantsahe”.
“You see, when the liberals mobilize with each other they do it through the media and say that you have never approved a single megawatt of power generated from renewables. It’s not true, so when I tried to explain that when contracts are approved for renewables, there’s a delay in building that facility, you’re not going to get electricity right away, on average, it’s going to take 16 months to build that facility, I was called cynical.” Mantasha said.
His remarks came as calls were mounting for Eskom not to be placed under his management due to his stance on renewable energy and insistence on continued use of coal and other fossil fuels.
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Mantashe said there were a few steps that would solve the current electricity crisis, including maintaining and servicing the capacity of Eskom’s coal-fired power plants and ensuring they go from a 49% electricity availability factor to at least 75%
While the ANC has discussed the energy crisis internally, with opposition parties and other quarters, the party and the president have yet to address the nation on the state’s plan to resolve the growing load disconnection crisis.
