LISTEN: AfriForum to start own power company and save South Africans from Eskom

Ailing state-owned entity Eskom may soon have a competitor in AfriForum.

The lobby group claims it is in the process of creating a pebble-bed reactor power station that is compact enough to fit on a truck and supply a whole city with reliable power for up to 40 years.

Households and businesses in South Africa are suffering under the devastating impact of load shedding with angry and frustrated citizens calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to find a solution to the crisis.

Speaking to The Citizen, AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said the pebble-bed reactor power station is a much broader solution to end load shedding.

Eskom unable to meet demand

“The fact is we came to realise that Eskom is not going to be able to provide electricity needed for the country in the future. One hopes that they will be able to recover, but it seems it’s not going to happen.”

Kriel said the reactor will not be a quick fix but a start to addressing the power crisis faced by South Africans.

“One needs to be humble about this, there’s no quick fix and no one organisation, such as AfriForum, can solve this. But what we want to do is play a facilitating role for others to get involved.”

Three-phase plan

Kriel said AfriForum has a three-phase plan to tackle the energy crisis.

He said stage one is to help consumers become independent from Eskom, including mounting a court case against the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).

“The second stage is to free towns, cities and communities from electricity sold by municipalities. A model for this plan is the Mafube Local Municipality, near Frankfort in the Free State, where privately owned utility business Rural Maintenance has been successfully managing the town’s electricity supply for the past 10 years.”

Kriel said the long-term plan is to develop the first modular pebble-bed reactor in South Africa, using financing from foreign and local investors.

“In the long term, specifically nuclear energy can play a role. This will probably be a 10-year project. There are good signs, we’ve spoken to the experts in this regard and held discussions with people that are funders.” 

Kriel said the biggest problem is to get the legislative framework changed.

“The funding is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is to open up the regulatory and legislative framework which we are working very hard on at the moment.”

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More than one power station

Kriel said there will be power stations in each town.

“It should be in towns itself and the model project that I mentioned on Frankfort… So, I think the future would be to have these electricity providers in every town and this will also make sure you have local job creation,” Kriel said.

Listen to the interview with AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel

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