WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE?

Sir,

According to media reports, the Democratic Alliance in the Republic of South Africa is in the process of initiating a move to terminate the power supply agreements that ESKOM has with several countries in Southern Africa, Swaziland included. The motivation for the DA’s move is that South Africans cannot be expected to bear the continued power load-shedding while supplying power to neighbouring countries.

What intrigued me, however, is the comment attributed to our Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, who is quoted as having said Swaziland has her own plans. According to the report, the minister is quoted as having said that in the medium to long term, Swaziland is planning and working on having adequate power generation capacity of her own.

The country is currently importing about 80 per cent of its power consumption from external sources, with the main supplier being ESKOM. This means that in the event that the DA’s idea is implemented, we as a country would have to urgently find alternative sources of power. I would like to urge the minister to share with Swazis what, exactly, is entailed in the plan that she is quoted as having referred to. Most of our neighbours have embarked on ambitious power generation projects attracting billions worth of dollars in investments.

What is it that makes Swaziland unattractive in that regard? Our country is endowed with vast deposits of coal and there is adequate water which are both predominantly the main ingredients in setting up a thermal power generation plant but, despite all of this, our efforts in getting investors to set up a thermal power plant have been unsuccessful. Does the minister know why? Is the minister’s plan feasible considering the time that it takes to set up a reasonably-sized thermal power station?

The DA’s thinking is that charity begins at home and naturally, as a country, our inaction has left us vulnerable to the politics and policy changes of our big neighbour. Our location puts us at an advantage in terms of exporting power to our big and relatively industrialised neighbour and our continued lack of decisive action is causing us to lose out on the golden opportunity to generate our own power and export any excess to our big neighbour whose power requirements far exceed their capacity.

It is therefore imperative that the Minister of Natural Resources and Energy shares with the nation what exactly is the plan she is quoted as referring to, together with the timelines, costs and capacity of the planned power generation plant. If the minister does that, she would have shown the nation that she is, after all, accountable to the taxpayers. I do hope that the minister’s plan is evolving from just being a plan to something tangible to ensure that our lovely country is not held at ransom by over-zealous political parties of other countries.
Good luck, minister, as you embark on your mysterious and secretive plan.

Hanger, Mhlume

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