Cape Town rolls out generators, inverters at its facilities as power crisis deepens

The City of Cape Town’s (CoCT’s) Facilities Management Department says it has installed power generators at a number of facilities over the last few months as South Africa’s power crisis continues to deepen.  Facilities that received generators include the Hillstar municipal building; Ottery municipal complex; Rochester Road Metro Police building; Pinelands municipal building and the Wesfleur municipal building, in Atlantis.
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Youth foundation sets out to bolster EV production, maintenance skills in South Africa

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) South Africa has released a Competency Framework for the Electric Vehicle (EV) Industry in South Africa, which serves to help education institutions bridge the knowledge and skills gap in the automotive industry and improve the competencies needed for the growing EV industry.
Particularly, South African students lack skills related to producing and maintaining EVs – which most stakeholders in the automotive industry agree is the vehicle of the future.
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Numsa condemns Gordhan’s appeal against loadshedding exemption

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has criticised Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan for his decision to appeal the High Court judgment which orders public schools, healthcare facilities and police stations to be exempt from loadshedding. Further, the judgment directed the department to take all reasonable steps to ensure the sufficient supply of electricity in these critical sectors of the economy.
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Lack of action by law enforcement agencies prompted private Eskom investigation – Makgoba

Former Eskom interim chairperson Professor Malegapuru Makgoba believes there would have been no reason for former CEO André de Ruyter to pursue a privately funded intelligence investigation of corruption and sabotage at the State-owned utility had the law enforcement agencies done their jobs. Some of the contents of the intelligence report were raised by De Ruyter in a bombshell television interview in February, in which he claimed that senior political figures had direct links to coal cartels operating in Mpumalanga.
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Impending power, water cuts threaten businesses owing CoJ

Businesses in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) have been alerted to the possibility of having their electricity or water disconnected, owing to the sizable monetary debt owed to the municipality. The City has decried the “millions of rands” owed to it by businesses.
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Mantashe says release of ‘IRP 2023’ for comment is imminent

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe reports that an updated version of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity will be released imminently for public consideration. Responding to a question posed by the Democratic Alliance’s Kevin Mileham during a Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy as to why the revised IRP had not been released by the end of March as promised, Mantashe said the “rough IRP framework has been completed, it is going to be opened for discussion”.
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Short-term solutions to energy challenges lie with private sector, incentives

It will take about three years to improve the energy availability factor of State-owned power utility Eskom’s coal-fired power stations to an acceptable level of about 65%, as generator units must be taken offline to do deep maintenance. This means Eskom’s energy availability will drop further before it can be improved, said energy expert Chris Yelland on May 9 at the Africa Automation Technology Fair.
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Private sector injects R340m in support of South Africa’s localisation drive

A new public-private initiative has been launched in an effort to support the growth and development of South Africa’s manufacturing sector, whose recovery from the Covid lockdowns is currently being undermined by intense daily loadshedding. Known as the Localisation Support Fund (LSF), the non-profit company is being funded by the private sector, but has a board that includes government, labour and business representatives, including Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel, who is LSF chairperson.
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Biggest African bank cites energy needs in fossil fuel defense

Standard Bank Group, Africa’s biggest lender by assets, defended it’s investment in fossil-fuel projects, saying tthe continent’s energy needs have to be balanced with climate concerns. The Johannesburg-based bank’s exposure to coal mining, oil and gas and power generation from fossil fuels rose 21% last year to R119.4-billion, according to Just Share, a Cape Town-based shareholder activist organisation. While that’s almost five times its exposure to renewable energy projects, lending to green-power initiatives rose 84% over the year.
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We can’t compensate, ‘but we empathise’: Eskom says it’s not to blame for power outages in …

Eskom says it can’t commit to compensating businesses affected by power cuts in Mahikeng.  The power utility’s customer relations manager, Ezekiel Baruti, told News24 that the power outages, which lasted for more than a week, had affected residential homes and businesses, including mortuaries.
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