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South Africa’s decision to sell a majority stake in the country’s loss-making national airline represents an ongoing financial risk to the state as the terms were skewed heavily toward the buyer, the National Treasury said.

The finer print of the deal that saw the Takatso Consortium take a 51% shareholding in South African Airways last year represents a “contingent liability,” the Treasury said in a document emailed to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts that was later withdrawn.

That’s partly because Takatso -- made up of a local jet-leasing company and private-equity firm -- has the right to assess whether any ongoing liabilities in SAA be settled by the government, the Treasury said in the document seen by Bloomberg.

The emergence of the concerns came as Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan was set to appear before the public-accounts committee. Gordhan, a former finance minister, had made the removal of SAA from the state roster a key tenet of his role overseeing he Department of Public Enterprises, which also counts debt-laden utility Eskom Holdings among its responsibilities.

The terms “may result in the state providing funds in excess of its shareholding,” the Treasury said.

While the letter was withdrawn, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said at the hearing that the National Treasury didn’t participate in the sale process and the substance of the “letter stands.” The department declined to immediately comment further.

PLANES GROUNDED

The sale of SAA was announced in June last year after the airline emerged from lengthy bankruptcy proceedings, during which its planes were grounded for well over a year and the workforce cut by 80%. The airline, which used to serve destinations across Africa and a number of major global cities, hasn’t made money since 2011 and received state bailouts that totaled billions of rand.

“We all have the responsibility in government to reduce the guarantees and contingent liabilities,” Gordhan said in the hearing.

The Department of Public Enterprises declined to comment further.

The National Treasury said it was not consulted on the sale of the stake, which it said cost 51 rand ($3.16), and remains in the dark about a number of other agreements such as Takatso’s proposed issue of preference shares to the DPE. It’s also concerned that government guarantees on SAA’s debt remain in place, according to the document.

The finance minister at the time of the sale, Tito Mboweni, clashed repeatedly with Gordhan over SAA, maintaining the company be allowed to go bankrupt and airlines operated by private companies. He was replaced by Godongwana in August.

“The strategic equity partner may assume very minimal shareholder risk for the acquisition of a majority shareholding a the purchase price of 51 rand,” the Treasury said.

Takatso consists of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners.

It is just amazing to see the innovation that the mining industry is capable of scaling up, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the Investing in African Mining Indaba in his enthusiastic address on Tuesday.

“Last week, I attended the launch by Anglo American of the world’s largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck.

“This truck will be powered by an entire ecosystem of hydrogen production around the mine itself, and I got so excited and so taken away that when Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi remarked on seeing the photograph of me in this massive truck that I looked like a young boy excited over a toy.

“I said to President Masisi, when I get fired from my job, I’m going to apply to go and work on this type of truck,” Ramaphosa quipped as he digressed from his keynote address which drew considerable applause.

“Yes, President Masisi, I still get excited over things like that,” he reiterated to the Botswana President, who was in the packed auditorium with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Democratic Republic of Congo President Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde,

“We are keen to harness the opportunities of the hydrogen economy,” said Ramaphosa, who highlighted that the Mining Indaba is taking place at a time when the world is having to adapt to new circumstances, confront new challenges and be prepared to seize new opportunities.

“The mining industry also needs to manage the risks and potential benefits of rapid technological change, shifting market demand, climate change and geopolitical uncertainties that abound.

“After more than 150 years, mining remains a critical pillar of our economy. I often refer to it as a continuous sunrise sector of our economy,” said Ramaphosa, who drew attention to mining being a significant contributor to export earnings, an important source of foreign direct investment, while directly employing nearly half a million people.

“And we expect mining’s significance and contribution to our economy to continue growing,” he emphasised at the Indaba address covered by Mining Weekly.

Like many other parts of the African continent, South Africa was abundantly blessed with vast mineral deposits that form the basis of the most important applications used in society and economies today.

Mining companies still saw the potential in South Africa and Southern Africa, President Ramaphosa added.

At the fourth South Africa Investment Conference earlier this year, investments valued at around R46.5-billion were pledged towards mining and mineral beneficiation.

But in addition to the great prospects for South African mining, the industry also faced significant challenges.

“It is a matter of grave concern that South Africa has fallen into the bottom 10 of the Fraser Institute’s Investment Attractiveness Index rankings.

“We are currently standing at seventy-fifth of 84, which is our worst-ever ranking.

“This ranking underlines the fundamental reality that South Africa needs to move with greater purpose and urgency to remove the various impediments to the growth and development of the industry.

“We understand very clearly the need to fix the regulatory and administrative problems that have crept into the system.

“We need to clear the backlog of mining and prospecting rights and mineral rights transfer applications, put in place a modern and much more efficient cadastral system, and implement an effective exploration strategy.

“We understand very clearly the need to significantly improve the functioning of our railways, which have fallen into disrepair, and ports, which are not performing at the level that we want them to perform, and the vital importance of ensuring a secure and reliable supply of affordable electricity,” Ramaphosa said.

These tasks were, he added, at the forefront of South Africa’s economic reconstruction and recovery efforts, which he described as being now firmly underway as part of Operation Vulindlela, an initiative of the Presidency and National Treasury, working in partnership with the Department of Mi...

The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) is implementing several emergency measures to secure a sustainable supply of jet fuel at the OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA), in Johannesburg, and to prevent airlines from having to cancel flights because of not being able to get fuel from their regular suppliers.

Fuel supplies at ORTIA are impacted as a result of damage to Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR’s) rail infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal after a destructive storm on April 11 resulted in widespread flooding and damage to infrastructure.

This has resulted in some fuel suppliers enforcing force majeure on fuel supply contracts. However, not all airlines use the same fuel suppliers.

ACSA, on May 9, met with executives from TFR, the Central Energy Fund (CEF), the South African Petroleum Industry Association, the Board of Airline Representatives and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to develop a plan to mitigate jet fuel shortages.

ACSA CEO Mpumi Mpofu told media afterward that jet fuel supply to ORTIA was stable, with about three-and-a-half days worth of fuel currently available at the airport.

“Comfortable” stock holding of jet fuel at ORTIA is about five days’ supply, she pointed out.

Mpofu explained that while there was a jet fuel supply and demand “mismatch” at ORTIA, the issue was small and confined to only some fuel suppliers, consequently impacting only two airlines.

ORTIA was able to continue jet fuel supply to 40 other international airlines during the time of disruption.

In this regard, an international airline cancelled 14 flights between April 24 to May 1 – a situation in which 3 150 passengers were impacted. Another international airline cancelled a single flight on April 24, affecting less than 100 passengers.

To address the situation, she said a shipment of 20-million litres of fuel landed in the Port of Durban would be pumped to the refinery of the National Petroleum Refiners of South Africa at about 19.00 on May 9, after which it would be piped to ORTIA.

In addition, ACSA, together with the CEF, has developed a framework to provide as much as 1.5-million litres of jet fuel to airlines that have been impacted by force majeures being enforced by their suppliers.

A possible Plan B will see the CEF issue directives to airlines for a jet fuel swap.

Meanwhile, ACSA said TFR had informed it that rail infrastructure between Durban and Johannesburg would return to 50% of its capacity by June 9, with 100% set to be restored by the end of October.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has attempted to put a positive gloss on the uneven progress being made under Operation Vulindlela to reform South Africa’s load-shedding-prone electricity supply industry.

Writing in his weekly newsletter, he said that “a number of important, interconnected reforms are under way to change the way that we generate and consume electricity”.

Despite the fact that no new independent power producer (IPP) projects have achieved financial close since 2018 – and that for projects initially procured in 2014 – Ramaphosa wrote that the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) had been “revived” through the opening of new bid windows.

Ramaphosa’s statement was reinforced in the first quarter Operation Vulindlela progress update, also referred to in the letter, which states that the revival of the REIPPPP is creating substantial new generation capacity, with a total of 6 800 MW of renewable energy being procured through current and future bid windows.

The report even assigns a ‘green’ status, which reflects a reform that is ‘on track or under way’, to the procuring of new generation capacity in terms of the Integrated Resource Plan of 2019.

However, a red status, reflecting ‘critical challenges in implementation’, has been assigned to the emergency procurement of 2 000 MW, under the so-called Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, financial closure for which has been delayed four times.

The IPP Office confirmed recently that the 25 preferred-bidder projects identified under Bid Window Five (BW5) of the REIPPPP could not close by the end of April target date and that the deadline for the first 14 had been shifted to the end of July, while the balance were expected to close by the end of September.

Delays in receiving grid connection bid quotations from Eskom have been identified as a key cause, but the utility has denied that it is the bottleneck. In addition, reports have emerged pointing to serious difficulties in meeting some local-content thresholds and in securing the components and services needed to build the projects at a cost that is aligned to the tariffs bid.

The solar photovoltaic projects have a weighted average price of 42.9c/kWh, while the wind projects came in at a weighted average price of 49.5c/kWh.

The procurement architecture has also not been adjusted materially for BW6, which was released on April 6, with an August 11 bid-submission deadline.

In her weekly newsletter, meanwhile, Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busisiwe Mavuso describes procurement progress as a “mixed bag”.

“The independent power producers programme was put back on track after years of delays and has conducted a fifth auction round and begun a sixth.

“However, there have been challenges in achieving financial close on projects that have been selected in round five, through a combination of bad policy around localisation and changing market conditions.

“The other disappointment has been the ‘emergency’ procurement round that bizarrely resulted in very expensive 20-year commitments to buy electricity from floating power ships that have been tied up in litigation since,” Mavuso writes.

Another reform “milestone” highlighted by the President in his newsletter is the raising of the licensing threshold for new generation projects to 100 MW, and allowing such projects to connect to the grid and sell power to third-party customers.

The Operation Vulindlela progress update also assigns a blue status to the change, which denotes a ‘reform completed’.

However, while there is significant interest in building distributed generation capacity, miners and other energy intensive firms have warned that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s registration process remains burdensome and that they, too, are struggling to secure grid connection budget quotes from Eskom.

The President also highlights changes to the regulations on new generation capacity, which have allowe...

South Africa aims to pursue a financing solution that embraces a “different paradigm” with regard to the allocation of risk, as well as return expectations and investment horizons, when negotiating the terms and conditions of an $8.5-billion climate finance offer made in November by several developed countries.

A ‘Political Declaration on the Just Energy Transition in South Africa’, which incorporates the financing offer, was signed with the European Union, France, Germany, the UK and the US on the side-lines of the COP26 climate talks, in Glasgow, Scotland.

Processes are now under way to translate the pledge into firm transactions that will support the transition from coal to renewables in the electricity sector, while supporting coal workers and communities, as well as to lay the basis for the domestic production of electric vehicles and green hydrogen.

Presidential Climate Finance Task Team head Daniel Mminele argued during an event hosted by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection that innovation would be required if the declaration is to be translated into financial products and services that could meet the objectives of justice and inclusion.

While it was premature to speculate on the nature of the financial instruments or the balance between concessional loans and grants, Mminele stressed that it could not be “business as usual”.

“We need to appreciate that a different paradigm may be required, [with] a different approach to issues such as risk allocation and return expectations, or investment horizons.”

Any debt, he added, should be extended on terms that were more attractive than could be secured in the capital markets and without “unduly onerous reporting requirements”.

The financing instruments should also reflect South Africa's unique needs and fiscal challenges and incorporate appropriate and equitable risk-sharing arrangements.

“These include, for example, risk-mitigation instruments, grants, concessional loans, and other appropriate tools, be they financial or otherwise, that contribute towards the cost of the country's transition, but without inhibiting or negatively impacting the country's national priority programmes and budgets.”

The former central banker and Absa CEO also unpacked the principles that would govern South Africa’s approach to the upcoming negotiations, including:

a recognition of the urgent need to invest in energy and transport solutions that will lower the country’s carbon emissions to help reduce the risk of climate change, which was already negatively affecting the country, as well as future trade-related risks;

the need to translate the offer made by the international partnership group (IPG) and multilateral development finance institutions into “tangible financial support, on terms and conditions that positively contribute towards South Africa’s objectives and don’t create unintended consequences”;

that the funding be used to build greater resilience by supporting the country’s growth and job creation efforts, while emissions are reduced, with a particular emphasis on supporting the livelihoods of workers and communities that will be affected by the shift to greener energy;

that country-specific conditions are fully recognised so that South Africans are able to take ownership of and leadership in the transition;

that the pace and extent of decarbonisation is premised on available resources, which would require the IPG to offer long-term cooperation commensurate with the timeline of South Africa’s transition, which is likely to endure for 30 years;

that pragmatic short-term actions be prioritised, particularly ahead of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the end of the year, while a longer-term programme is finalised;

that the package supported South Africa in its ambition to raise gross fixed capital formation from about 15% of gross domestic product to 30%, in line with the country’s National Development Plan;

that investment be sequenced such that the issue of electricity ...

Putting South Africa’s 60-million people first and working as South Africa Incorporated – SA Inc – is the only way to solve the problems of this country’s biggest State-owned enterprises, Eskom and Transnet.

This message was put out loudly and clearly during a panel discussion at McCloskey’s Southern African Coal Conference, in which Sereti CEO Mike Teke, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer, Menar MD Vuslat Bayoglu and Exxaro business development manager – minerals Mohloana Magwai took part.

“We have to start thinking about the 60-million people in this country and stop thinking about ourselves as a business alone. We have to think about the future of the country going forward and not about Seriti alone,” said Teke. Seriti is the largest supplier of coal to Eskom and the holder of the most cost-plus contracts with the utility.

Oberholzer told the conference covered by Mining Weekly: “If we, as South Africa, don’t get together and start working as SA Inc, I personally see that we’re going to run out of electricity generation capacity.”

The two big State-owned enterprises under the spotlight effectively form the backbone of the economy.

“If you don’t have Eskom and Transnet functioning in this economy, we’ll fall flat and end up as a failed state,” Teke warned.

“Where we are at this time as Seriti, we want to collaborate,” he emphasised.

Oberholzer outlined Eskom’s three monster challenges in the form of operational, financial and environmental aspects.

Eskom has 15 coal-fired power stations, the two newest with design defects and the 13 others averaging 43 years in age and coming to the end of their lives.

The plant has not been properly maintained because there is not sufficient capacity to take power stations out of service for upkeep.

Financially, Eskom also has insufficient money because it does not have cost-reflective tariffs, which has put the utility into debt.

A significant number of embedded corruption issues are also still having to be dealt with, which flies in the face of Eskom personnel serving the interests of 60-million South Africans ahead of themselves.

In response to ageing power stations, in the next eight years, Eskom will have to retire 10 000 MW of coal-fired power, and in another five years after that, another 12 000 MW. So, in the next 13 to 14 years, Eskom will have to retire 22 000 MW, which is half of what is available now.

When power stations are retired, they will be repurposed owing to the communities that have built up around the power stations.

“We will repurpose our power stations. We will then also get involved in renewables,” said Oberholzer, who also spoke of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy needing to come forward with new policy and taking the country beyond its current Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

“We do have an IRP 2019, but it’s no longer adequate and sufficient anymore. What is coming at us is that we are going to retire so many gigawatts over the next 14 years, which means that we need additional capacity yesterday. We’re already too late in having it available to the country. This is why I cannot emphasise enough that we, as South Africa, need to go into SA Inc mode to deal with the energy crisis that is starting us in the face,” he said.

Bayoglu drew attention to coal exports falling to 58-million tons in 2021 and being poised to fall to 49-million tons in 2022 owing to rail constraints.

“In the same period, look at Australia. It went from 100-million tons to 300-million tons and Indonesia from 100-million tons to 600-million tons,” said Bayoglu and pointed to the large number of additional jobs that are generated by such colossal growth.

“We have the best coal terminal in the world, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, with a capacity of 100-million tons, but we are using half of the capacity. We have never moved to a level of being comfortable to move 100-million tons. A maximum of 76-million tons has been exported. There is space in the port and there is coal available. The i...

The value of new-vehicle and automotive component exports from South Africa increased by R31.8-billion, or 18.1%, to a record R207.5-billion in 2021, up from R175.7-billion in 2020.

Last year’s vehicle and automotive component exports comprised 12.5% of total South African exports, down from the 13.9% recorded in 2020.

This is according to the Automotive Industry Export Council’s newly released 2022 Automotive Export Manual.

The report is compiled by the council’s Dr Norman Lamprecht, who is also the trade, exports and research executive at Naamsa | The Automotive Business Council.

Lamprecht says the domestic automotive industry last year rebounded sharply from the Covid-19-affected numbers seen in 2020, despite continued supply-chain disruptions, such as the global semi-conductor shortage.

However, he adds that the growth experienced since the initial shock of the pandemic has not yet been sufficient to see a return to Covid-19 levels.

The 2022 Automotive Export Manual shows that vehicle exports from South Africa increased to 298 020 units in 2021, up from the 271 287 vehicles exported in 2020, while export value increased by R17.1-billion, to R138.3-billion.

Automotive component exports saw a substantial increase of R14.7-billion, to a record R69.2-billion in 2021, up from R54.5-billion in 2020.

This was largely the result of record catalytic converter exports of R34.9-billion, especially to European markets that had to meet increasingly strict emission regulations, notes Lamprecht.

Catalytic converters comprised 50.4% of the country’s total automotive component exports, followed by engine parts, tyres and engines.

The South African automotive industry’s export destinations increased to 152 countries in 2021, up from the 147 destinations in 2020.

Record Investment

Lamprecht notes that South Africa’s seven major vehicle manufacturers invested R8.8-billion in 2021, the second highest yearly figure on record, while the component sector invested a record R5.7-billion last year.

In 2021, the broader automotive industry’s contribution to South Africa’s gross domestic product comprised 4.3% – 2.4% manufacturing and 1.9% retail.

The trading environment in South Africa remains extremely competitive compared with global standards, says Lamprecht.

In 2021 there were 43 passenger car brands and 3 077 model derivatives available in the local market – the greatest market selection to size ratio found globally.

Similarly, in the light-commercial vehicle (LCV) segment, there were 23 brands and 746 model derivatives available to the South African consumer.

Out of the top-ten selling vehicles in 2021, eight were South African-built passenger cars and LCVs.

The South African car parc currently stands at 12.96-million vehicles. It is an aging one, at an average of 10 years and four months in 2021, with 71% being six years or older.

Europe Remains Top Market

In 2021, passenger car and LCV exports accounted for 63.1% of total domestic light vehicle production in South Africa, with the remainder sold locally.

Nearly four out of every five new vehicles exported from South Africa were destined for Europe in 2021, with the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Japan the top export destinations.

Volkswagen Group South Africa, with its Polo model, maintained its position as top exporter for the third consecutive year.

Total South African vehicle production increased by 11.8%, from 446 215 units produced in 2020, to 499 087 units produced in 2021.

Indian Imports Surging

The top country of origin, in volume terms, for passenger cars and LCVs imported into South Africa in 2021 was India, at 129 364 vehicles, accounting for 49.3% of the total light vehicles imported.

This is a significant jump from 2020, when South Africa imported 87 953 units from India – or 43.2% of total passenger car and LCV imports.

India is a global production hub for entry-level and small vehicles, with South Africa currently in a major buying-down cycle as many consumers are being forc...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the latest delays in the procurement of new electricity generation capacity under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, as well as the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme; disagreements about the cause of these delays; and the implications for future procurement rounds.

The fully electric Fuso Canter (eCanter) light duty truck is currently undergoing homologation in South Africa, confirms Daimler Trucks and Buses Southern Africa (DTBSA) sales and marketing VP Maretha Gerber.

As the vehicle is still going through the homologation process, no test units have yet been allocated to a specific Fuso customer. However, two e-Canters are being prepared for testing in South Africa, she notes.

“The exact launch date for the South African market is not yet confirmed,” adds Gerber.

“The current version of the Fuso eCanter has been launched in several pilot markets and South Africa is in scope for Phase 2 of the final version of the Fuso eCanter. In the interim, the focus is on completing the planned testing, with further information to be shared as soon as there are firm timelines.”

New eCanter

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) earlier this year unveiled the test vehicle of the next-generation eCanter.

After launching Japan's first series-produced all-electric light-duty eCanter truck in 2017, MFTBC introduced an improved model with added safety features for the Japanese market in 2020.

The company is currently proceeding with the development and testing of the next generation eCanter, in preparation for the vehicle’s upcoming launch.

This mass production model will be made available with further upgrades in terms of range and safety features, and will be offered with an expanded lineup of variations to meet diverse transportation needs, promises MFTBC.

The truck is being tested under severe conditions in hot and cold climates, both in Japan and abroad.

Driving tests surpassing a total distance of a million kilometres will be completed by the time of the official launch.

To date more than 350 electric Canters have been introduced to markets in Japan, Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand, where they have collectively covered a distance of more than 4.5-million kilometres worldwide through daily operations.

MFTBC earlier announced plans to electrify all of its new models for the Japanese market by 2039, and to accelerate its shift to carbon neutrality.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan acknowledged that Eskom is in crisis but has dismissed suggestions that the utility is broken and heading for a “protracted failure”, saying that the restructuring under way will result in the emergence of a “completely different entity”.

Speaking at the tail-end of a heated debate on the electricity crisis, in the National Assembly, Gordhan acknowledged that Eskom’s current predicament had its roots in a failure by the African National Congress-led government to react quickly enough to warnings of an impending power shortage, as well as its failure to implement the 1998 White Paper.

The crisis had been accentuated, however, by years of State capture, which Gordhan said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration was committed to eliminating.

Quoting from the recently published Zondo Commission report into State capture at Eskom, Gordhan said the evidence pointed to a clear scheme to remove board members and executives that refused to cooperate with the Gupta family’s plan to steal taxpayers money.

Such actions, together with the abuse of procurement processes and internal controls, had a direct impact on the poor operational and financial performance of Eskom and other State-owned entities.

“It is this ANC administration, starting in 2018, that takes the responsibility to ensure that, in time, there will be energy security, and that it will transform Eskom.

“We take the responsibility for whatever has been done, but we will cure whatever has been done, given the time and the effort that we will put in.”

Gordhan urged lawmakers and citizens to show greater solidarity with the current Eskom management and employees, who were working under trying circumstances, including years of maintenance neglect, to address the risk of load-shedding, which had intensified over the past three years.

“Is Eskom broken or dysfunctional,” Gordhan asked rhetorically.

“Eskom is not broken. It is not dysfunctional, but it does have a crisis and it does have a series of challenges . . . [which] will take time to resolve.”

He said that between 4 000 MW and 6 000 MW of new generating capacity was urgently required to provide the utility with the time and space it needed to stabilise parts of the aged coal fleet.

“[So], is there a threat of a protracted failure of Eskom?

“No, because ultimately the Eskom that we know today, won't be the Eskom that you will recognise in ten years’ time – it will be a completely different entity,” Gordhan said, alluding to the unbundling of the vertically integrated utility into three businesses of generation, transmission and distribution.

Parliamentarians, meanwhile, expressed strongly divergent views over the causes of, as well as possible remedies for, the ongoing electricity crisis in a debate held at the request of Inkatha Freedom Party MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa.

Hlengwa, who courted controversy recently as a result of a heated exchange, for which he later apologised, with Eskom board member Busisiwe Mavuso during a Standing Committee on Public Accounts oversight visit, bemoaned the seeming lack of urgency in tackling the crisis.

He pointed to the high economic and social costs of ongoing load-shedding, which was being implemented at Stage 2 during the debate.

“The complete lack of progress, or positive change in the functioning of this entity [Eskom], seem to indicate that both the upper management and the board are sitting on their hands rather than making difficult decisions needed to steer us in the right direction,” Hlengwa asserted.

He added that South Africa’s economic recovery depended on stable electricity supply and that “load-shedding, therefore, cannot become South Africa's default position”.

The Democratic Alliance Kevin Mileham also urged greater urgency and called on ANC Ministers to remove the “ideological blinkers” that were preventing them from taking the actions required to arrest the crisis.

“We can't afford to wait.

“If we are to address poverty and unemplo...