South Africa won’t change IPP course ‘midstream’

Cabinet appears to have put paid to Eskom efforts to halt the country’s highly regarded independent power producer (IPP) programme, with Minister in The Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Jeff Radebe indicating on Monday that there was no intention to “change course midstream”. Speaking in Pretoria at a briefing on the Cabinet lekgotla, which took place at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guesthouse from August 16 to 19, Radebe endorsed an August 17 statement by Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, in which she reiterated that South Africa was pursuing a “diversified energy mix” which would include IPPs and the new nuclear build programme.