Ramaphosa: SA working hard to solve load shedding crisis

Ramaphosa was speaking during the first day of the South Africa Investment Conference on Thursday. 

"This partnership will involve re-purposing and repowering some of the coal plants that are reaching the end of their lives and creating new livelihoods for workers and communities most impacted by this change.

"All this work is part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan that we put in place in October 2020 to drive growth and job creation in the aftermath of the pandemic," he said. 

"The measures that form part of the plan underpin the social compact that we are building among social partners, and specifically between government, labour, business and the community constituency." 

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He said while the country continues to experience load shedding, government is working to bring new generation capacities online. 

"We are working with the private sector to fast-track investment to unlock a potential 4 000 MW of embedded generation.

"We have increased the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW, which has been widely welcomed by many in the business sector.

"Last year, we launched bid window 6 of our Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. 

'This is going to add new generation capacity to the grid over the next two years, mainly through wind and solar power."