Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana’s response to media reports regarding his remarks about Eskom
3 November 2022
The Minister of Finance Mr Enoch Godongwana would like to clarify recent media reports about comments he made on Monday 31 October 2022 regarding Eskom. The reports claim Minister Godongwana said that the National Treasury's plan to takeover a portion of Eskom's debt will be linked to conditions that the power utility builds new coal, gas and nuclear plants.
This is untrue and a misunderstanding of the argument the Minister was making.
Minister Godongwana's point was that South Africa's energy transition will not be an immediate and wholesale abandonment of the country's existing electricity sources, but a phasing-out of fossil fuels that may also involve transitional measures to maintain current coal and nuclear plants, and also the use of transitional sources like gas.
Government’s key planning instrument, the Integrated Resources Plan (IRP), envisions a combination of energy sources, including solar, wind, coal, gas and nuclear, to maintain the security of electricity supply at the most affordable cost to South Africans.