Under former state president Jacob Zuma’s administration, the then minister of energy tried to push through a nuclear energy deal with Russian energy company, Rostom, which, had it succeeded, would have effectively bankrupted the country’s coffers. Civil society organisations challenged the deal in court and won, and it was finally shelved when Cyril Ramaphosa became president.

To this end, Mantashe commented, “The fact that we suspected corruption doesn’t mean that nuclear is irrelevant for the country in 2019.” South Africa still remains the only country on the African continent with a commercial nuclear power plant. The Koeberg nuclear power plant, which houses two nuclear reactors, generates 5% of South Africa’s electricity productions.

On the country’s future power plans, Mantashe emphasized the importance of undoing the tensions between renewable energy and coal in securing energy solutions that are required to meet demands. With regards to this, he explained that there are no full commitment by the government to move towards nuclear at this stage, but rather a commitment to explore all energy options.

We all hope this vision is expedited in a move to stabilize the country’s power grid.

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The storm has had devastating consequences for South Africa as well. Although not deadly, the storm knocked down electricity and phone networks and cut off power to South Africa from a hydropower dam.

Cyclone Idai damaged a Mozambican transmission line to South Africa, in the process cutting supply to the country by a whopping 900MW which immediately worsened the electricity shortage in South Africa. This resulted in Eskom bumping up rotational load shedding from Stage 2 to Stage 4 on Saturday, due to the 900MW loss in supply from Mozambique.

The on-going load-shedding has impacted small and middle businesses negatively, has caused traffic bust ups, even cellphone networks were not spared with many users struggling for signal.

There is good news though! The situation should improve from the public holiday on Thursday and going forward, as the demand begins it’s decline. That, coupled with a shipment of diesel expected to arrive today (19th March, 2019) and should be ready for use in the next few days, should bring some much needed relief to the power grid.

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Unlike a traditional solar photovoltaic (PV) system, the Karoshoek facility is based on concentrated solar plant (CSP) technology, which requires no coal or any other excess waste products. How it works is, several parabolic mirrors will focus the heat and energy from the sun, into a huge collector which holds thermal fluid. This thermal fluid, as with traditional coal stations, powers a turbine using this heat, which it is able to retain for several hours. Meaning that this plant is able to generate electricity even when the sun goes down.

There has been increasingly loud and persistent calls for the government to seriously start looking into renewable energy, and it would appear as though the call is being headed. Through the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, the government aims at killing two birds with one stone, that is, making sure that we avoid load-shedding and more importantly, creating job employment opportunities and economic growth.

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