S African delegation inundated by eager energy investors

22nd January 2016 By: African News Agency

S African delegation inundated by eager energy investors

Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson

South African Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson on Friday told a briefing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that the South African delegation had been inundated with requests for meetings from potential energy investors.

“Even before we left South Africa people were clamouring to meet us…governments banks, even the UN,” Joemat-Pettersson told the African News Agency after the briefing.

“Last Davos we said we are ready for investment; this Davos we have been over-run by requests from investors,” she said.

The minister added that the evaluation of the potential nuclear power programme would be done along the same lines as the highly lauded and successful Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.

“The interest in this programme speaks for itself; we are not judging ourselves.”

She refused to be drawn on possible time frames for any potential nuclear programme, saying that once a request for proposals was out, the process was out of her hands.

“The process must be independent, it must not be politically influenced,” she insisted.