LOOKING EAST

Electricity minister looks abroad for solutions

New minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is looking beyond South Africa to resolve the country’s power crisis.

Ramokgopa told the Sunday Times he would reach out to several countries to learn how they fixed their electricity supply problem.

The minister also plans to use his first 100 days in office to review President Cyril Ramaphosa’s energy crisis action plan unveiled in July last year, with the aim of fast-tracking its implementation.

Ramokgopa said he would not write a new strategy but would be “pulling apart” the existing plan. “It’s just for me to go back and say that these targets that we had set ourselves are too ambitious, unachievable or they are very conservative.”

This week he met the Chinese ambassador to discuss possible collaboration to end the rolling blackouts, including sourcing technical expertise; demand side management intervention as it relates to supply; training young people to meet demands for solar power installations; the introduction of micro-grids; and emergency power.

“It is not a bias to this or that country but it is also important to know that China has had this problem before,” he said, adding that South Africa is in conversation with several countries, including Canada.

“We are speaking to the Germans, Americans, World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and of course we met with the Chinese ambassador, and it’s essentially to know, of all of these countries where is the area expertise, and where can we get the quickest assistance.”

Looking at solar options

Ramokgopa will also meet the Vietnamese ambassador because that country has dealt with blackouts.

“They did rooftop solar for businesses and houses and in a space of 12 months they got 9,000MW and they are sitting with more energy than they need. So you go to a country like Vietnam and ask them how they did it.”

Ramokgopa said Vietnam has a solution for rooftop solar, which South Africa desperately needs, while China is the leading exporter.

“The best solar technology is in China and so we know where their strength is, and the World Bank’s strength could be on project structuring and financing.”

South Africa will also meet leaders of all developmental partners, including multilateral development banks with a local presence.

“I tell them that this is the kind of expert I want and they go and recruit, through a transparent process, and get paid through their own money, but they work for us.”

The same applies to the Chinese, he said: “They know how to build these components and one of the conversations ... is assembly in the country and ultimately manufacturing. They have the technology and the knowhow and build with speed.”

This is the kind of intervention South Africa needs, Ramokgopa said.

Meeting the key players

To end load-shedding the country needs an extra 6,000 to 10,000MW. In winter the demand is between 35,000 and 37,000MW, while in summer it’s around 30,000MW. “It’s about aggregating all of this together so that we get to that 6,000MW energy deficit.”

The morning after he was sworn in as electricity minister he met mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan and finance minister Enoch Godongwana to understand the separation of powers, responsibilities and roles.

He said he will speak to Ramaphosa about a proclamation that will assign some aspects of the Electricity Act to his office.

“I do not want to run ahead of myself but you essentially need the powers that will make it possible to address the issues of load-shedding. We have put it together and we are submitting it to him and I would rather wait for him to apply his mind.”

Ramokgopa said the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom) has already made recommendations on which powers should be given to him.

“They have shared that with me and I have concurred 99% with what they have said and it is up to the president to decide.”

He believes he is the right man for the job.

“I had expected the pressure. And the pressure, impatience and general grievance of people not trusting government and these interventions is there, and I think that it is justified.”

When Ramaphosa offered him the job he told him that load-shedding “is the biggest threat to South Africa’s democracy. I wasn’t desperate for the job in that I am not a politician. I do not derive my primary source of income from politics. If tomorrow they say I must go, I will go back to my engineering practice but remain an activist.

“I see this as more of a service to the country. You might not like me, and there might be a significant number, but just accept that I am at the helm to help resolve the problem.”

The minister has also met delegates from the agricultural, telecommunications, mining and automotive sectors, but one person he will never forget is a man he bumped into at a mall who blamed politicians for the Eskom crisis.

“He approached me saying: ‘So you are my new boss?’ And I said what do you mean? Then I asked him what is the problem at Eskom.

He said: ‘The problem is you.’ And I asked him what he meant and he said: ‘Politicians and management’.”

You might not like me but just accept that I am at the helm to help resolve the problem

’Politicians are the problem’

The man told Ramokgopa about a power station he works at in Mpumalanga.

“He is a technician and has been working there for about 11 years. He said when he started he was monitoring instrumentation on the dashboard and when it flickered, he was the one who got it back on line.

“He said over the past five or six years they have told him there is a new contractor to fix that problem. So now when that thing flickers, a contractor will drive to the power station and when they arrive the equipment might have failed and the first thing that the contractor does is to ask what happened and he must explain.

“Some of them really don’t know what to do when they get there, but he has strict instructions not to touch anything because there is a contractor.”

Ramokgopa said this shows in the numbers, with the annual maintenance budget ballooning from R3bn to R12bn. “But you are not seeing results; instead the failures are continuing.”

The technician also told the minister there were notorious contractors: “Whatever they touch fails and they keep coming back. It’s a feeding frenzy, as he put it.”

While he doesn’t have the mandate or capacity to deal with corruption, Ramokgopa hopes that his visits to power stations this week will help bring to light what is happening inside Eskom.

I had expected the pressure. And the pressure, impatience and general grievance of people not trusting government and these interventions is there, and I think that it is justified