'I am not the minister responsible for Eskom' – Mantashe says he is not to blame for blackouts
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says South Africans should not blame him for Eskom's woes, pointing out that the power utility is actually part of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan's area of responsibility.
The minister, who faced widespread criticism this week, was speaking on the sidelines of the South African Communist Party's (SACP) special national congress in Kempton Park on Tuesday.
Deputy President David Mabuza, who also attended the congress, apologised to the country for the "inconvenience" caused by rolling blackouts, known widely as load-shedding.
"To accuse me of Stage 6, when Eskom is in another ministry, that in itself is just opportunist[ic]. I am not the minister responsible for Eskom. I must be allowed to do my work within my responsibility, complement the work that is done in [the] public enterprise [portfolio].
"I have a responsibility and duty to respect Gordhan in the space that has been allocated to him and not be a disrupter of that space. I will resist anybody who pushes me to be a disrupter of that space. Though Eskom is a source of energy, it is allocated in public enterprise and there is a minister responsible [in that portfolio]," he said.
But Mantashe's department is aware that it has a part to play in fixing the power crisis.
'Other interventions'
On Tuesday, the minerals and energy department released a statement on short- to medium-term interventions to meet energy demands. These include allowing independent power producers to come on stream earlier and initiating a drive for the use of more liquefied petroleum gas, Fin24 reported.
The government has been working overtime to deal with the fallout after the power utility briefly escalated load-shedding to Stage 6 on Monday evening, leaving many South Africans frustrated and concerned about the impact on the economy.
In an interview with eNCA, Gordhan refused to call Stage 6 a "major crisis", saying the power crunch was manageable. On the same day, when speaking to journalists, the minister described his input as "ideas" and "suggestions" to help offload pressure on the grid.
"We are suggesting that if we want to help Eskom, we must have other interventions outside of Eskom. If we develop LPG, the bottled gas, it will take a big load out of Eskom if the middle class consume that product. If we generate energy from gas outside of Eskom, it will take a lot of load out of Eskom. We are not saying we are doing it today, we are throwing [around] these ideas to say in the long term, we must have interventions, short-term and medium-term," he added.
Following Monday's shift to Stage 6, Gordhan said his department would meet with the energy department to discuss the best way to secure 4 000 MW of spare capacity to add to the system.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation