We need to look at dealing with load shedding ‘in the immediate’

In another despatch from La La Land, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has insisted yet again that our current energy crisis is not a “South African phenomenon”.

Speaking on Wednesday, he said: “When I said that everybody run all over me [saying] I’m in denial. I’m not in denial, there’s a crisis all over the world.”

As we supposedly take comfort from knowing that, according to Mantashe, functioning countries also have blackouts for eight hours or more a day, we should also be reassured by his ongoing commitment to anything-but-renewable-energy for South Africa’s energy needs going forward.

He did concede this week that he is not an engineer, before lecturing the country that renewables will take a long time to bring on to the country’s grid.

And, in the meantime, we need to look at dealing with load shedding “in the immediate”.

He made it plain that he sees energy production in future, though, as including “innovative use of indigenous resources which include the sun, wind, nuclear, water, coal, oil and gas”.

We hope Mantashe’s words don’t indicate that his government is only making “concessions” on renewables to quieten the environmental lobby. Our planet and future generations will not thank you for that, Comrade Minister.

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