Is Lesufi perhaps on the money?

Gauteng’s new premier, Panyaza Lesufi, is certainly one for basking in the limelight, so it would be easy to dismiss his plan to construct a R1.2 billion, 800 megawatt solar farm in the province as more pie-in-the-sky populist posturing.

The early signs, too, are not that good. Apart from revealing the location of the planned development – Merafong on the West Rand – there has been little additional information.

Fair enough: all politicians are more dreamers than doers, so implementation may well be coming.

ALSO READ: Drones, tamper-proof number plates, e-buttons: Lesufi’s high-tech plans

What is not in dispute, is that the most important province in the country, from a economic point of view, needs to lessen its power dependence on our basket-case national grid.

Also not in dispute is the imperative to reduce our country’s reliance on fossil-fuel electricity generation and to move towards renewable energy.

The load shedding crisis may have provided Lesufi with the opportunity to produce some more deathless media soundbites, but it also may be the catalyst needed to accelerate the adoption of green energy.

In the Western Cape, the City of Cape Town, on occasion, manages to lessen the impact of load shedding on its citizens through the use of the Steenbras hydro-electric power plant and Joburg’s Kelvin power station also takes up some of the slack … but the reality is that provinces and municipalities around the country need to invest in schemes to reduce reliance on Eskom.

ALSO READ: Sopa 2023: E-tolls permanently scrapped

Of course, given that Lesufi has already been somewhat tainted by the scandal of R400 million being spent on “disinfecting” schools when he was provincial education MEC, there must be concerns about “leakage” of funds from such a megaproject.

Kusile and Medupi are reminders that the ANC is often electrified by opportunities to loot. Still, the plan is a step in the right direction. Let’s hope it’s not just empty political grandstanding.