State’s split personality on power dents credibility ever further

Many believe government’s left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

This week would not have done much to change that perception. After a week where the country was plunged into darkness due to an unexpected round of load shedding, despite denials of claims it was coming, the last thing we needed was another gaffe from government.

Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe, fresh from his howler where he promoted the non-existent mineral hazenile to investors at a mining conference in Australia last month, had to backtrack again.

On Friday evening the department of energy admitted they had gazetted the wrong version of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2019, which it had earlier launched in the day.

The IRP is government’s long-term energy plan, effectively the national electricity plan that makes energy decisions based on cost and policy considerations leading to 2030.

It will now have to publish a cabinet approved correction after publishing the document in the Government Gazette on Friday morning.

The two documents contradicted each other when it came to dealing with nuclear energy. It’s just another dent in our credibility as President Cyril Ramaphosa attempts to woo foreign investors.

It would probably be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

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