DA petitions Minister to publicly commit to time frames on IPP

28 February 2017

Today’s announcement by the Minister of Energy, Tina Joematt Pettersson, that the stalemate between Eskom and the IPPs has been resolved, is welcome but insufficient. This is at least the third time that the Minister has made such a statement, but without a timeline for implementation there remains no certainty over the issue.

As such, the DA will be petitioning the Minister  to publicly commit to a timetable for signing of the remaining outstanding IPP contracts. Anything short of a public declaration against which Eskom can be held accountable will be meaningless.

We have been down this road before, with many promises by government that the IPP programme commitments will be honoured, yet Eskom has continuously refused to sign the contracts -despite Eskom’s cost recovery concerns’ being adequately addressed by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).

Eskom executives must now follow through with this directive or face removal by the Minister of Public Enterprise who has offered little support or backbone in this ongoing tussle.

Eskom’s continued refusal to sign the outstanding IPPs is undermining investor confidence in the renewable sector, the result of which has been the collapse of various suppliers with countless jobs being lost in the process.

The time for talk and promises is over. Firm action against Eskom must now be taken, lest the tail continue to wag the dog.

Issued by Gordon Mackay, Shadow Minister for Energy, 28 February 2017