by Cayla Murray
Koeberg power station produces around 4% of all electricity generated in South Africa.
This week it was reported that Koeberg needs to be finished with its extension of lifetime upgrades by 2024, otherwise it will have to be shut down for up to two years due to licensing issues, at which point Stage 2 load shedding will become the norm for our country.
Our already ailing economy is being destroyed by load shedding that happens on an off-and-on (nowadays mostly on) basis. What hope is there to attract job creating investment when we are in a permanent state of rolling blackouts?
Of course, this is avoidable. The ANC-led national government needs to pour hundreds of millions of rand into a disorganised entity that has proven over and over again that it does not have the ability to get things done. What could go wrong?
The reality is that we need a different way of doing things if we are ever going to escape candlelight and cold dinners. It’s time that Ministers Gordhan and Mantashe took a leaf from the Western Cape’s book and tried something innovative.
Whether it be the Municipal Energy Resilience initiative or the City of Cape Town’s plans to procure power from Independent Power Producers.
DA-led governments are fighting the energy crisis. The people of South Africa deserve so much more than a permanent state of uncertainty.
God forbid we ever get to the stage where the only certainty is that there is going to be a blackout every day.
* Cayla Murray (DA), Member of the Western Cape Legislature, Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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