Mining Sector Welcomes Tito Mboweni’s Pledge To Fix SA’s Power Crisis

Minerals Council South Africa has welcomed Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s pledge in his budget speech yesterday to do “whatever it takes” to ensure a stable electricity supply.

Mboweni had tweeted earlier this week his team’s budget speech drafting session had to adjourn due to load shedding by Eskom, the country’s state-owned power utility.

“So frustrating,” he tweeted at the time.

The country’s miners were hobbled by unprecedented load shedding in December and the MCSA had described the electricity supply crisis as “the single biggest risk” to the economy as it called for urgent action in January to address South Africa’s economic, investment, power and security issues.

MCSA urged the government to reduce regulatory obstacles for self-generation and said it would have liked to see incentives introduced to promote energy efficiency, renewable generation and demand management.

It believed the mining industry alone could deliver about 2.3GW into the system within the