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Gwede Mantashe has harsh words for Eskom as additional 1,759MW of renewables signed up

‘Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state,’ Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said as his department signed purchase agreements with independent power producers, securing 1,759MW of energy into the grid in the near future.
Gwede Mantashe has harsh words for Eskom as additional 1,759MW of renewables signed up (Photo: iStock)
Onke Ngcuka
By Onke Ngcuka
8 Dec 2022
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Thirteen more renewable projects have started the onboarding process into the Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) Bid Window 5, adding a total capacity of nearly 1,759MW of energy generation to the grid in the near future. 

The signing took place at a ceremony at the Independent Power Producers’ office in Centurion, Pretoria, on Thursday, 8 December, and now puts Bid Window 5 projects at 19 out of 25, with the rest yet to reach commercial close. 

The signing was attended by the chosen bidders and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and was hosted by Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Director General Jacob Mbele, with an address by Eskom’s MD for Transmission, Segomoco Scheppers. 

In total, the programme has signed on 1,909MW of energy to the grid. 

However, with grid capacity constraints, the additional power becomes futile, particularly when the programme is still facing bottlenecks with the Independent Power Producers’ office waiting for exemptions from National Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry. 

After the Bell: Joburg Mining Indaba Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe. (Photo: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams)



“We are from the period of State Capture, but load shedding is becoming worse than State Capture,” said Mantashe, adding that the levels of crime and sabotage were limiting economic growth. 

“Any other government can be overthrown for this level of load shedding. Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state. If it is not addressed, then the state will be failing to do what it needs to do… load shedding is urgent; it must be attended to sooner than later.” 

He said “we’re engaging with Eskom more aggressively and telling them to get investment into the grid as quickly as possible… energy is always used as a factor that attracts investment into the economy”. 

Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe at the Bid Window 5 ceremony. (Photo: DMRE)



The signing ceremony comes a day after Eskom had announced Stage 6 load shedding, citing power station breakdowns and a lack of funds to buy diesel for its emergency generation fleet. 

Read in Daily Maverick: “Power station breakdowns and less money to buy diesel force Eskom to escalate rolling blackouts to Stage 6”

A fourth announcement of Stage 6 load shedding highlights the urgent need for renewable energy as well as sufficient infrastructure to onboard this power onto the grid. In its Transmission Development Plan, Eskom said it needed 53GW of new additional generation capacity, particularly for renewable energy security. 

Despite grid capacity constraints, Mantashe announced the five preferred bidders for Bid Window 6. They are: 

  • Kutlwano Solar Power Plant in North West;

  • Boitumelo Solar Power Plant in North West;

  • Virginia Solar Park in Free State;

  • Good Hope Solar Park in Free State; and

  • Doornhoek PV in North West.


Head of the IPP Office, Tshifhiwa Bernard Magoro, said in his address at the ceremony that 4,110MW of wind power under Bid Window 6 could not be allocated because of grid capacity that had already been allocated to the private sector. This also saw 2,200MW of PV in the Cape regions not being allocated. 

The preferred bidders are expected to reach commercial close by April 2023, Magoro said. 

The signed and announced preferred bidders will only see that energy generated between 12 to 24 months from their commercial closes, Mantashe said. 



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Lea Giroux, senior business developer at Engie, a French part-state-owned  IPP and gas distributor, is one of the companies that signed their purchase agreements at the ceremony. Engie SA has 300MW of renewable energy and 1GW of power plant energy, located in Durban and Gqheberha. 

“[We arrived in South Africa] 20 years ago as the first IPP,” said Giroux. “We were on the first Bid Window, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth… of course we faced a lot of challenges during the four years when the programme was stopped… so we had four years of big doubts.” 

SA corporates take a shine to solar power to improve energy efficiency A fourth announcement of Stage 6 load shedding highlights the urgent need for renewable energy as well as sufficient infrastructure to onboard this power onto the grid. (Photo: iStock)



The programme, considered one of the best in the world, had come to a halt under the leadership of then CEO Brian Molefe and Koko Matshela, former Eskom head of power generation. 

Molefe had decided to stop the programme advancing beyond Bid Window 4, claiming that renewable energy had “disappointed” and that its technology would only be reliable in 10 years. 

Read in Daily Maverick: “Grim Reippp(er) — undoing the choke-hold on SA’s renewable energy programme”

The decision to do away with the programme while Eskom was being looted under State Capture is partly why South Africa finds itself in an energy crisis, with the country experiencing the worst-ever levels of load shedding this year. DM/OBP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

Comments (4)

lilley.roger Dec 12, 2022, 08:32 PM

Part two --- But when the minister chose to award the lion's share of the RMIPPPP to a powership company, he found it was unable to provide the additional power because it couldn't get permission to park the powerships in South African harbours, thereby making the RMIPPPP a failure. So what does the minister do? He chooses to propagate blatant untruths about Eskom by saying that the power utility has 20 000 MW of generating capacity "lying idle". Well if that was true - which of course we all know isn't - why did he go to the trouble of setting up the RMIPPPP? Load shedding has cost thousands - probably hundreds of thousands of job-losses. That problem should keep him up at night trying find solutions. Instead, he chooses to spread false information and pass the blame. It really is time for the old man to retire. South Africa needs a young, well-educated person to head up the energy ministry. Someone who understands that South Africa needs reliable, affordable electricity now to make the economy grow and enable the wonderful goals of the NDP. That person needs to be a visionary who looks forward, and who is not lost in the indoctrination of a system that doesn't work and could never produce peace and prosperity for all. After all, isn't the ANC's primary goal to provide "a better life for all"?

lilley.roger Dec 12, 2022, 08:31 PM

Surely Gwede Mantashe is skating on thin ice. Carl Niehaus has been expelled for bringing the ANC into disrepute. I suggest that Gwede Mantashe is doing the same thing. His ridiculous statement that Eskom's implementation of Stage 6 load shedding was “akin to agitating for the overthrow of the state” demonstrates not just his total lack of understanding of why load shedding is necessary but was clearly used to try to deflect attention away from the DMRE which is solely responsible to ensure South Africa has sufficient electricity generating capacity to make the ANC's lofty National Development Plan possible. Eskom does not have the authority to procure additional power. That's the minister's job. Since 2020, Eskom has been asking the DMRE for additional generating capacity so that Eskom would be able to shut down and make proper repairs to ageing, unreliable equipment, thereby addressing the root cause of load shedding. For a while, de Ruyter's request was ignored. Then Mantashe instituted the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme in an effort to end load shedding. By so doing, he tacitly acknowledged that de Ruyter was right - more power generation capacity was needed. ... Part two continues...

Trevor Thompson Dec 10, 2022, 11:20 AM

The elephant in the room is nuclear power. The ANC still has a strong leaning towards nuclear energy. It is strongly suspected, (and according to ANC history, likely) that the nuclear deal with Russia offered large kickbacks to the ever-connected, including GM. This is what is causing the shift to renewables to stutter along in the hope that the nuclear option becomes more urgent. I personally have nothing against nuclear in principle, but high cost together with the long construction phase make it a poor starter to get past our coal woes. Cost to consumer of nuclear is estimated variously between 2 - 6 times that of renewables. Renewables will also create jobs to off-set those lost with coal-plant closures. Result: Get the fastest available electricity option going as fast as possible - renewables are also the cheapest.

Matsobane Monama Dec 9, 2022, 04:54 PM

This man has no shame @ all, Loadshedding worse than STATE CAPTURE. He is insane, corruption, mismanagement @ SOEs especially Eskom is part of state capture which ledPoliticians lying once again. There is a lot of African Engineers educated @ top Universities here n abroad. Overlooked bcos they are not politically aligned. BEE shouldn't be used as a scapegoat for government failure. Some White Engineers resigned and set up small companies which charged ESKOM an arm and leg for their services. BEE is here to stay.