Electricity crisis in SA has had a huge impact on the mining sector, Ramaphosa tells investors

PHUTI MOSOMANE

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa told delegates at the Mining Indaba 2023 in Cape Town that the mining sector was hugely impacted by Eskom electricity blackouts, but the country is investing in new generation capacity.

Ramaphosa said six months ago, the government announced a National Energy Action Plan to improve the performance of existing power stations and to add new generation capacity to the grid as quickly as possible.

He told delegates that Eskom has assembled experienced technical teams to improve performance and recover capacity at power stations, with an initial focus on the six least reliable stations.

”Through a regional power pool arrangement, we have already imported 300 MW of capacity from neighbouring countries and are working to increase this by an additional 1,000 MW.”

”The successful renewable energy programme is being strengthened,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Investing in African Mining Indaba held at the Cape Town