Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe has denied there is any fight between him and Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa over the powers of the new minister.
Mantashe said he was working closely with Ramokgopa in resolving the energy crisis in the country.
He said the Cabinet and President Cyril Ramaphosa wanted an end to load shedding and they were taking all steps to reduce it and subsequently end it.
Mantashe, who was answering oral questions in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday, said Ramokgopa was leading the energy action plan to deal with the crisis.
“The energy action plan is being implemented. Leading that effort is the minister of electricity. There is no contestation on that. There is no fight between the minister of energy and the minister of electricity on that issue. He is leading that exercise and we are supporting him. Anybody who writes stories that we are having a big fight imagines that fight,” said Mantashe.
The reality was that both departments and the Cabinet want an end to load shedding.
The minister of energy also denied he was against renewables saying he had delivered more renewable projects in four years than his predecessors did in 11 years.
He said renewables were a long-term project. But in the immediate term they needed to increase the energy availability factor in power stations to drastically reduce load shedding.
Mantashe also said there was no shortage of coal in the country.
What was the problem at the moment was the quality of coal that is delivered at the power stations.
Mantashe said he had discussed this with Ramokgopa and they needed to resolve it.
When the government was given R187 billion by the developed economies for the just energy transition, the coal industry made healthy revenue in excess of R30bn.
This showed that the industry was not dead, but was performing well, said Mantashe.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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