Electricity Minister Seemingly Ditches Plan To End Load-Shedding By December

TimesLive reports that Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has seemingly reneged on earlier plans to end load-shedding by December and is now looking to

• A source recently told TimesLive that Ramokgopa was planning to extend the life of several coal-fired power stations to bring forward the expected eradication of load-shedding, but this plan now appears to have been shelved.
• However, the Electricity Minister's plan for addressing the power crisis tabled to the ANC's executives rules out ending load-shedding by the end of this calendar year, which Ramokgopa said is "not technically possible."
• "The long and short of it is that load-shedding will still be with us by the end of this calendar year, but we will do everything possible to ensure its intensity is not as severe, so we get the economy going."
• Recent press reports suggested that the government was considering extending the life of old coal-fired power stations, but this would entail a failure to meet environmental commitments which are tied to $8.5bn in foreign funding.
• In his latest newsletter to the public, President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote that "the manner in which these commitments are achieved must not compromise energy security or the immediate priority of reducing load shedding."